England was alone. She had no friends, no empire to supply gold and raw material - even the Roman Catholic Church was against her. Across the Channel stood her opponent. A country with the backing of the Pope, a country with the largest standing army in the world, and an empire that stretched from Benelux to Chile to the Philippines. The year is not 1940, it's 1588 and Protestant England under Queen Elizabeth stands alone against the most powerful empire since that of Ancient Rome, Roman-Catholic Spain and Phillip II
The England of 1588 was not yet "Great Britain." Scotland was a separate country, Ireland (as now) was a constant source of rebellion. She had no foreign colonies except a few small outposts in the New World. She had just lost her last holdings in France as a result of an unsuccessful war against Spain. Her only allies were the Dutch - who were then engaged in a revolt against Spain.
Spain on the other hand was the premier power in the world with the military power, resources, and, as importantly, the political will to place the entire world under the Spanish flag. Spain's holdings already included Portugal, the kingdom's of Naples and Sicily, Milan, and the Netherlands in Europe. In Africa, she held Tunis, Oran, the Cape Verde and Canary Islands. In the America's, she possessed Peru, Mexico, New Spain, Chile, Hispaniola, Cuba and many other smaller islands in the Caribbean.
There was almost no power left to oppose Phillip's goals. France had been so weakened by internal revolts that she posed no threat. Germany, Italy, and Poland were either fragmented or outright allies. The Turks had been defeated at the battle of Lapanto and were subdued. Throughout the known world there was no other power that could break Phillip and his Empire. Only one nation stood in Phillip's way - England.
As the last bastion of Protestantism in Europe, England supplied arms and men to the rebellious Dutch countries, who were also protestant. It was this aid that so far had prevented Phillip from crushing the forcefully converting the Dutch to Roman Catholicism.
Amazingly, England had been remarkably successful at spoiling Phillip's plans. Elizabeth's privateers raided Spainish colonies in the New World, seizing gold shipments and burning towns. England's fleet, though at a disadvantage in numbers, managed to defeat Spanish ships in stand-up fights on the high seas. Daring Englishmen even raided the Spanish coast, burning arsenals and cities. Phillip himself became the object of derision and ridicule in the English press and theater. It is said that this disrespect irritated Phillip even more than England's pinpricks on his Empire. Something must be done about Elizabeth.
