Drake's Raids in the Caribbean
Years: 1585 - 1586
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Foreign trade, except for traffic in enslaved Africans, is forbidden unless the goods pass through Spain.
Africans are brought to the colonies on contract (asiento) by Portuguese, English, Dutch, and French slavers, who are forbidden to trade in any other commodities.
Spanish efforts to retain their monopoly on the rich profits from trade with their colonies provides a challenge to the rising maritime nations of Europe.
Intermittent maritime warfare results in the Caribbean and later in the Pacific.
The first serious interference with trade comes from the English.
Francis Drake’s Raid on Vigo (1585): A Prelude to the Anglo-Spanish War
In 1585, English privateer Sir Francis Drake, acting under Queen Elizabeth I’s orders to disrupt Spanish supply lines, launched an attack on the Galician port town and naval station of Vigo. This bold raid on Spain’s Atlantic coast was one of the first major English offensives in the Anglo-Spanish conflict (1585–1604), which would culminate in the Spanish Armada campaign of 1588.
Drake’s Mission: Disrupting Spanish Power
- Queen Elizabeth I granted Drake carte blanche to “impeach the provisions of Spain”, meaning he had full authority to:
- Attack Spanish ports and colonies.
- Capture supplies and ships.
- Undermine Spanish economic and naval strength.
- Drake’s expedition of 1585–1586 was a preemptive strike against Spain, launched after King Philip II prepared an embargo against England.
The Attack on Vigo
- Vigo was a strategic Spanish naval base, serving as a military and trading hub on Spain’s Atlantic coast.
- Drake’s fleet attacked the town, aiming to damage Spain’s maritime capabilities.
- The English pillaged and burned parts of Vigo, although they did not establish a lasting occupation.
Aftermath and Impact on Anglo-Spanish Relations
- Drake’s raid weakened Spain’s Atlantic defenses, forcing Philip II to reinforce coastal fortifications.
- This attack further escalated tensions between England and Spain, directly contributing to:
- Philip II’s decision to launch the Spanish Armada (1588).
- The broader conflict of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604).
- Over the following years, Vigo remained a target for English privateers, and similar attacks disrupted Spanish shipping and trade.
Conclusion: A Provocation Leading to War
Drake’s 1585 raid on Vigo was one of the first direct English assaults on Spanish territory, marking the beginning of open conflict between England and Spain. His naval aggression, backed by Queen Elizabeth I, set the stage for further attacks on Spanish colonies and the eventual confrontation of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Drake's first wife, a Cornish woman named Mary Newman, whom he had married in 1569, had died in 1583, and in 1585 he marries again.
His second wife, Elizabeth Sydenham, is an heiress and the daughter of a local Devonshire magnate, Sir George Sydenham.
In keeping with his new station, Drake purchases a fine country house—Buckland Abbey (now a national museum)—a few miles from Plymouth. (Drake's only grief is that neither of his wives had borne him any children.)
During these years of fame when Drake is a popular hero, he can always obtain volunteers for any of his expeditions, but many of his great contemporaries regard him very differently.
Such well-born men as the naval commander Sir Richard Grenville and the navigator and explorer Sir Martin Frobisher dislike him intensely.
He is the parvenu, the rich but common upstart, with West Country manners and accent and with none of the courtier's graces.
Drake has even bought Buckland Abbey from the Grenvilles by a ruse, using an intermediary, for he knows that the Grenvilles would never have sold it to him directly.
It is doubtful, in any case, whether he cares about their opinions, so long as he retains the goodwill of the queen.
This is soon enough demonstrated when in 1585 Elizabeth places him in command of a fleet of twenty-five ships.
Hostilities with Spain have broken out once more, and he is ordered to cause as much damage as possible to the Spaniards' overseas empire.
Drake's exploits encourage Philip II of Spain to divert his plans to conquer the Netherlands’ rebellious northern provinces and order the planning for an invasion of England.
It is known by 1586 that Philip II is preparing a fleet for what is called “The Enterprise of England” and that he has the blessing of Pope Sixtus V to return the crown to the fold of Rome.
Fulfilling his commission, Drake returned to the Cape Verde Islands and sacked Ribeira Grande for a second time in 1586.
The English already believe the late governor Menendez de Avíles and the Spanish colonists of La Florida had been responsible for the disappearance of the English fishing settlements in America.
Thus, following the disappearance of the Roanoke colony in Virginia, the blame had immediately leveled been at St. Augustine.
Francis Drake, on the return leg of his circumnavigation of the globe, attacks and burns St. Augustine in Florida, driving the surviving Spanish settlers into the wilderness.
Lacking sufficient forces or authority to permanently establish a settlement, Drake leaves the area.
Francis Drake arrives in 1586 at San Domingo (now Santo Domingo, Hispaniola), which he sacks also.
Drake attacks the city of Cartagena in New Granada (Colombia).
Disembarking at night, he takes the city at dawn; he forces the inhabitants to take refuge in the neighboring village of Turbaco, burns the houses and destroys a nave of the cathedral.
Drake forces the authorities to pay him one hundred and seven thousand ducats and takes some jewelry and eighty artillery pieces before sailing on to San Domingo.
Francis Drake is associated with most of the assaults on Panama from 1572 to 1597.
Drake's activities demonstrate the indefensibility of the open roadstead of Nombre de Dios.
The Atlantic terminus of the trans-isthmian route is moved in 1597 to Portobelo, one of the best natural harbors anywhere on the Spanish Main (the mainland of Spanish America).
Despite raids on shipments and ports, the registered legal import of precious metals has increased threefold between 1550 and 1600.
Panama's prosperity is at its peak during the first part of the seventeenth century.
This is the time of the famous ferias (fairs, or exchange markets) of Portobelo, where European merchandise can be purchased to supply the commerce of the whole west coast south of Nicaragua.
When a feria ends, Portobelo reverts to its quiet existence as a small seaport and garrison town.
“History is a vast early warning system.”
― Norman Cousins, Saturday Review, April 15, 1978