INTRODUCTION Had the Spanish attained naval ascendancy in European waters, and thus thrown Britain on the strategic defensive, then the massive expansion of colonial land defences in the late 18th Century would have proved unnecessary. It is therefore instructive to investigate what efforts Spain made to achieve control of these seas and why they failed, before studying colonial developments. THE FRANCO-SPANISH NAVAL ALLIANCE Even under optimum conditions the Spanish Fleet lacked the resources to challenge the British alone as it never assembled much over half the strength of their Royal Navy. However, the extension of the Family Compact with Bourbon France and later alliances with Republican and Imperial France sometimes succeeded in giving their combined fleets a marginal numerical superiority over the British in the late 18th Century. However, this slight advantage was usually nullified by difficulty in coordinating the aims and operations of the two fleets. REFOUNDATION IN THE EARLY 18TH CENTURY The Spanish Navy, like the Army, was not so much reformed as refounded by the Borbons in the early 18th Century. It was only from 1714 that centralised ministerial control was established over the various moribund peninsular provincial fleets and a truly co-ordinated naval policy developed. Thereafter the close integration of the Spanish Navy with the Indies is indicated by the fact that from 1721 they usually came under a joint Ministry of the Navy and the Indies. The first new navios built were designed for convoy service with the regular flotas and galleones to and from the Americas but were soundly beaten at the one-sided Battle of Cape Passaro off Sicily in 1713 where they were found to be too small and lightly manned to stand up to their English equivalents. Thereafter the Spanish pursued a policy of shipbuilding which reversed these two, disadvantages and by the reign of Carlos III (1759-1788) Spanish navios were usually of greater size and weight of armament than their British equivalents. More The Spanish Navy, 1762-1807 Introduction Carlos III and Sea Power Decline Under Godoy Major Spanish Warship Losses in the Caribbean: 1741-1796 Major Spanish Warship Types in Late 18th C. Back to Table of Contents -- El Dorado Vol V No. 4 Back to El Dorado List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by The South and Central American Military Historians Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com