There are many reasons why the Spanish Armada failed but one of the most important reasons is simply because they were not organized and prepared. They came into battle being arrogant. The Spanish were not prepared for the worst thing that could happen. The English planned what they were going to do step by step. They surprised the Spanish by waiting for them at sea instead of having a land battle with them. All of this history is very significant because it shaped how England is today because if the Spanish Armada had won, England would be totally different to how it is today and this essay is going to be telling you exactly what happened and why the Spanish Armada failed.
One of the main reasons of why the Spanish Armada failed was because of their planning and preparation. The English were fully prepared because they had 16,000 experienced sailors on board and 76,000 soldiers waiting on land. The English fleet consisted of 177 ships which were small and less than 100 tons. Also 34 of them were Royal Warships so they were ready for anything. On the other hand the Spanish armada was equipped with enough ammunition, food, water for 4 weeks. This was quite a big problem because this was much longer than they expected to be at sea. The Spanish Armada had 16,000 sailors and 34,000 soldiers at sea. Philip believed that God was on the side of the Roman Catholics so he has 180 priest monks on board so they could have daily masses.
Another reason why the Spanish Armada failed was because of their leadership. The English were led by Lord Howard and although he had little experience at sea, he relied on brilliant commanders like Sir Francis Drake and he helped them. The Spanish Armada were led by the Duke of Medina- Sidonia and this was a very bad idea because he had no experience at fighting and he relied heavily on his more experienced captains. Philip thought he knew everything so he ignored advice that he would need 500 ships in order to succeed and ended up paying the price in the end.
One of the other reasons why the Spanish Armada failed was because of their weapons. The Spanish had poor weapons and were not prepared for a sea battle. The Spanish also had long range canons and it took them up to 1 hour to reload because of the way that they were mounted. Whereas the English had short ranged canons and it only took 10 minutes to reload. They had short ranged canons because they did not want to get too close to the enemies and risk being boarded. The Spanish were really unprepared because some of their ships were unarmed. The English were able to hit and destroy Spanish ships now but the Spanish could not manage to retaliate and to make it worse, Some Spanish could not even defend themselves.
A reason why the Spanish Armada failed was because of the quality of army that they had. They basically had no way of keeping in contact because they had no ship to ship communication. The Spanish had no phones, radios, satnavs (in those days they were not invented) that would be able to be used for communication. So if they had a change of plan or if they wanted to change direction, there would be no way for them to inform other ships and this was a big problem because if they could not keep in contact it would be impossible for them to get any messages across.
The last reason why the Spanish Armada failed was because of the luck that they had. Unfortunately for the Spanish, the strong winds prevented the Spanish returning through the Channel. 27 boats sank and only 90 ships returned and 11,000 Spanish people lost their lives. This meant that now they had a lot less ships than the English and a lot less people. This also meant that there were no ships to fight in the battle and unfortunately for them, they lost their formation and disastrously, they were blown around Scotland. This was very good luck for the English because they took advantage of the wind and used fire ships and blow into the Armada.
In conclusion, I think that the Spanish Armada failed because of their lack of organisation. They were poorly prepared and that resulted in them having to pay a price which was losing the battle and not only did they lose the battle but they lost 27 boats and 11,000 people. This showed them that in order for them to have won the battle they needed to be focused and determined but they came into battle conceited and they did not succeed.