2nd Spanish Armada 1596. Spain and England had been at war for nearly twelve years with neither side gaining the upper hand. The result of the intervention of Philip II in the religious war in France in support of the Catholic League, meant that Spanish forces had established coastal garrisons along the French and Flemish coast by the late 1580s. These bases had a huge strategic value because they allowed England to be threatened by the Spanish fleet and troops. England on the other hand had also intervened in France, but in support of King Henry IV of France, as a result of
Armada de Molucca Armada de Molucca The Armada de Molucca was the name of the Spanish fleet led by Ferdinand Magellan in the first expedition to sail to the Spice Islands from Europe and the first world circumnavigation. The fleet sailed from Spain in 1519 across the Atlantic and then Pacific Oceans. After Magellan's death in the Philippines in 1521, Juan Sebastian Elcano took command of the fleet which arrived in the Spice Islands a few months later, and led the expedition back to Spain across the Indian Ocean where they arrived in 1522. The fleet, provided by King Charles V, included five