History UsefulNotes / NewSpanishArmada

The Castilian-Aragonese army at that point was almost solely specialized in the guerrilla warfare waged against the Moor strongholds of the peninsula. Although it was up to time in weapons and armors, it was in many ways a GlassCannon, with most of his training and experience devoted to guerrilla and hit-and-run tactics. However, when general UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba was forced by the King of Naples to fight and lose a pitched battle against the powerful French army, he took to completely remodel the system. He made the army into smaller units called ''coronelías'' and combined pikemen, arquebusiers and swordsmen with a strong focus in infantry action, and unlike most armies of the times, where heavy cavalry played a vital role to break the enemy, he relegated his own cavalry to finish broken enemies. The next time he faced the French, he completely crushed them. This was the birth of the ''tercios'', the evolution of the ''coronelías'', which took the form of 1000-man units with arquebusiers and pikemen in a ratio of about 3:1. Countries like Portugal and the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire would rush to copy the system, with the Portuguese in particular creating their own ''terços''.

Castile, Aragon and their properties in America and Italy were eventually inherited by UsefulNotes/CharlesV of the [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic House of Habsburg]], also Holy Roman Emperor, which employed his ''tercios'' to great effect to defeat France and the German Protestants (in fact, it eas around this time that they received the name ''tercios'' in the first place). Like Charles' own empire, the units became truly multi-national teams, with a core of Castilians and Neapolitans complemented by both levies and mercenaries extracted from Germany, the Habsburg Netherlands, and other parts of Italy. Even when Charles and his descendants got overconfident and entangled themselves in more wars they could chew, their armies generally stood up to the challenge, racking up victories against French royalists, French Protestants, Dutch rebels, English smugglers-turned-privateers, Ottomans and African Muslim pirates. As the poem said, ''allende nuestros mares'' / ''allende nuestras olas'' / ''el mundo fue una selva'' / ''de lanzas españolas'' ("beyond our seas / beyond our waves / the world was a jungle / of Spanish lances").

The Castilians also seem to have been the first to formalise the idea of naval infantry, what with their "marine" forces being officially founded by Charles V in 1537. Their usage was then pioneered by UsefulNotes/AlvaroDeBazan, Marquis of Santa Cruz, the man who also popularized the usage of the big Spanish galleons everybody knows. This naval infantry and is currently the oldest still active in the world.

Interestingly, and contrary to popular belief, the formation of the ''tercios'' was not static, but constantly evolving. Even textbooks, normally taking after Protestant war sources that tried to picture the Catholic Spaniards, Germans and French as archaic and outdated, have led to the belief that the model of line infantry, pioneered by their Dutch enemy Maurice of Nassau, left obsolete the ''tercios'', which selected defeats like Nieuwpoort and Rocroi being proposed as the point in which the Spaniards saw the light and reformed their forces in the image of their opponents. In reality, evolution of both Catholic and Protestant armies happened more or less simultaneously, with innovations coming from both sides towards what would only later become line infantry. This included expanding the proportion of arquebusier:pikemen to 6:1, introducing volley fire and reducing the size of the infantry blocks. At the end of the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar, the armies known as ''tercios'' didn't resemble very much the units first created by the Great Captain.

The first true flaw of the ''tercios'' appeared after all those generations of endless war, and it was simple wear and tear. The Castilian ''milicia'' system was simply unable to cope with the manpower and bureaucratic demands increasingly placed upon it, leaving mercenaries to fill the gap more and more. When King UsefulNotes/PhilipIV attempted to divide reasonably the war effort among his many non-Castilians subjects, what he called ''unión de armas'', they basically revolted against him. The ''tercios'' eventually faced another problem -- not their own decadence, as it often claimed, but rather the fact that France finally caught up with Spain on the military field. After the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession, when the Spanish Habsburg dynasty was replaced by the French House of Bourbon, the ''tercios'' were finally retired, being replaced by the new ''regimientos''.

Spanish military were deeply reformed with the arrival of the House of Bourbon to the Spanish throne in 1700 and served in the American Revolution, where the King of Spain supported the newborn United States against the British Empire. Spanish Marines were able to defeat the British Redcoats in battle during the American Revolution under UsefulNotes/BernardoDeGalvez, and its commander rode next to UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington in the parade after the war was won. Indeed, as mentioned about the Marquis of Santa Caruz above, Spain invented the concept of Marines both in paper and action. This was copied by the British, who were in turn copied by the Americans. During the invasion by UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte in 1808, the Army was mostly smashed by the Napoleonic forces (with the exception of Bailén, which was the first defeat of Napoleon's army ever, or the First Siege of Zaragoza), and most of the military actions were done by the guerrilla fighters spread out over all of Spain. It would take some time until Spain recovered an army.

The earliest origins of the Spanish Army can be traced back to the late 15th century. UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs of Castile-Leon and Aragon (Isabella and Ferdinand) developed a royal 'milicia' system of, well, militia to provide troops under direct Royal command to fight their war against the Moorish Duchy of Granada. The existence of these forces lessened and eventually ''removed'' the monarchy's need to rely on the nobility and clergy to provide troops for their wars. This reduced the sway both had over society in general and the monarchy in particular.

Although highly advanced for its time thanks to the efforts of UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba, this system was still to prove inadequate when faced with the wars that came along with Castile and Aragon's later Imperial entanglements under the Spanish Habsburgs. Having inherited The Arch-Duchy of Austria, The Duchy of Burgundy (the modern day Low/BENELUX countries), the Duchy of Milan, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Sicily+Naples) the Spanish Habsburgs found themselves almost continually at war for about two hundred years. The Spanish Habsburgs' chief enemies (even after Austria passed to the 'Austrian' branch of the family, making the struggle against the German Protestants no longer a direct problem) were France and the French Protestants (during the latter C16th French Wars of Religion), Dutch Protestants and Nationalist Rebels, African Muslim pirates, the Muslim Ottoman Empire (particularly under UsefulNotes/SuleimanTheMagnificent), [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and English smugglers-turned-pirates]]. The ''milicia'' system was completely unable to cope with the manpower and bureaucratic demands placed upon it, leaving great hordes of mercenaries to fill the gap - as in the contemporary UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar.

The conquest of the ''Nuevo Mundo'' or New World of The Americas was actually not a military issue, at least on paper. Conquest expeditions were actually mostly private enterprises, backed by particulars with their own money on the expectation that they would make it back with what they found, and their leaders were often people without any real military experience - such as UsefulNotes/HernanCortez, who was actually a politician and a civile administrator - who had to hire true military veterans and consultants out of their pocket to do the job. Essentially, Spanish conquests were the equivalent to your city mayor suddenly hiring war vets and any available volunteer to invade another state. The result is that many of those expeditions were poorly equipped and supplied and usually not supported at all, which, mixed with the wholly unknown lands, forced them trust more on experience, grit and fighting for their life more than elegant strategy. Accordingly, the true factor in the Spanish conquest would be indigenous diplomacy, at least as much as battlefield finesse - as the Hispanic idiom says, "the conquest was done by the Indians and the independence by the Europeans".

To sum, the America basically fell into Castile-Leon's lap because of the actions of just a handful of ruthless and very cunning bastards who managed to place themselves at the heads of powerful indigenous coalitions to [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheAztecEmpire defeat the universally-loathed Aztec Empire]] (a small state surrounded by others which it raided for human sacrifices, obviously leaving many people upset) and [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheIncaEmpire the perenially factious Incan Confederation]] (a collection of several dozen kingdoms, bound together in only the very loosest of senses, that was also infamous for the bloody punishing actions of their reigning head). Adding to that, the Old World plagues accidentally brought by the Spaniards would play an important factor in reducing the manpower of their enemies (and sometimes allies too). After a few decades, the last of the Conquistadors died, often at each other's hands, and the monarchy began a centuries-long struggle to try and administer The Americas directly, something the Conquistadors' (often half-European, half-Amerindian) descendents tried to oppose.

Interestingly, the Castilians seem to have been the first to formalise the idea of 'Naval Infantry' what with their 'marine' forces being officially founded by King UsefulNotes/CharlesV Habsburg of Castile-Leon (aka King Carlos II Habsburg of the Crown of Aragon and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V Habsburg) in 1537. Their usage had been already pioneered by UsefulNotes/AlvaroDeBazan, Marquis of Santa Cruz, the man who also popularized the usage of the big Spanish galleons everybody knows. The basic military formation during the imaginary Golden Age of 1560-1600 (during which the Spanish Habsburgs were more-or-less the only major Christian power in Europe given France's descent into a religious civil war) were the ''Tercios'', 1000-man formations of musketeers and pikemen in a ratio of about 3:1 that evolved from Fernández de Córdoba's original design. The Tercio would be reformed after insufficient performance in the Thirty Years' War, with a new musketeer:pikemen ratio of 6:1 or more.

Spanish military were deeply reformed with the arrival of the House of Bourbon to the Spanish throne in 1700 and served in the American Revolution, where the King of Spain supported the newborn United States against the British Empire. Spanish Marines were able to defeat the British Redcoats in battle during the American Revolution under UsefulNotes/BernardoDeGalvez, and its commander rode next to George Washington in the parade after the war was won. Indeed, as mentioned about the Marquis of Santa Caruz above, Spain invented the concept of Marines both in paper and action. This was copied by the British, who were in turn copied by the Americans. During the invasion by Napoleon in 1808, the Army was mostly smashed by the Napoleonic forces (with the exception of Bailén, which was the first defeat of Napoleon's army ever, or the First Siege of Zaragoza), and most of the military actions were done by the guerrilla fighters spread out over all of Spain. It would take some time until Spain recovered an army.

Although highly advanced for its time thanks to the efforts of UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba, this system was still to prove inadequate when faced with the wars that came along with Castile and Aragon's later Imperial entanglements under the Spanish Habsburgs. Having inherited The Arch-Duchy of Austria, The Duchy of Burgundy (the modern day Low/BENELUX countries), the Duchy of Milan, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Sicily+Naples) the Spanish Habsburgs found themselves almost continually at war for about two hundred years. The Spanish Habsburgs' chief enemies (even after Austria passed to the 'Austrian' branch of the family, making the struggle against the German Protestants no longer a direct problem) were France and the French Protestants (during the latter C16th French Wars of Religion), Dutch Protestants and Nationalist Rebels, African Muslim pirates, the Muslim Ottoman Empire (particularly under Suleiman the Magnificent), [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and English smugglers-turned-pirates]]. The ''milicia'' system was completely unable to cope with the manpower and bureaucratic demands placed upon it, leaving great hordes of mercenaries to fill the gap - as in the contemporary UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar.

Although highly advanced for its time thanks to the efforts of UsefulNotes/GonzaloFernandezDeCordoba, this system was still to prove inadequate when faced with the wars that came along with Castile and Aragon's later Imperial entanglements under the Spanish Habsburgs. Having inherited The Arch-Duchy of Austria, The Duchy of Burgundy (the modern day Low/BENELUX countries), the Duchy of Milan, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Sicily+Naples) the Spanish Habsburgs found themselves almost continually at war for about two hundred years. The Spanish Habsburgs' chief enemies (even after Austria passed to the 'Austrian' branch of the family, making the struggle against the German Protestants no longer a direct problem) were France and the French Protestants (during the latter C16th French Wars of Religion), Dutch Protestants and Nationalist Rebels, African Muslim pirates, The Muslim Ottoman Empire (particularly under Suleiman the Magnificent), [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and English smugglers-turned-pirates]]. The ''milicia'' system was completely unable to cope with the manpower and bureaucratic demands placed upon it, leaving great hordes of mercenaries to fill the gap - as in the contemporary UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar.

This system was to prove inadequate when faced with the wars that came along with Castile & Aragon's later Imperial Entanglements under the 'Spanish' Habsburgs. Having inherited The Arch-Duchy of Austria, The Duchy of Burgundy (the modern day Low/BENELUX countries), the Duchy of Milan, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Sicily+Naples) the Spanish Habsburgs found themselves almost continually at war for about two hundred years. The Spanish Habsburgs' chief enemies (even after Austria passed to the 'Austrian' branch of the family, making the struggle against the German Protestants no longer a direct problem) were France and the French Protestants (during the latter C16th French Wars of Religion), Dutch Protestants and Nationalist Rebels, African Muslim pirates, The Muslim Ottoman Empire (particularly under Suleiman the Magnificent), [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and English smugglers-turned-pirates]]. The ''milicia'' system was completely unable to cope with the manpower and bureaucratic demands placed upon it, leaving great hordes of mercenaries to fill the gap - as in the contemporary [[UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar]].

''Nuevo Mundo'' or 'New World' of The Americas basically fell into Castile-Leon's lap because of the actions of just a few hundred enterprising and utterly ruthless bastards who managed to place themselves at the heads of powerful coalitions to defeat the universally-loathed Aztec Empire (a small state surrounded by others which it raided for human sacrifices) and the perenially factious Incan Confederation (a collection of several dozen kingdoms bound together in only the very loosest of senses). That just a few hundred men were able to make a difference to societies where maybe 40 million people had been living just a few decades beforehand is thanks largely to the way they accidentally brought Old World plagues (like the Black Death) with them. These killed about 90% of the entire population of The Americas, effectively reducing the pool of available manpower for fighting down to about 400,000 men - still enough to absolutely slaughter the Castilian 'Conquistadors' if they so chose, but small enough that a force of vicious bastards could make a credible claim to be worthy figureheads. What the locals ''didn't'' count on, however, was the Conquistadors turning on them and butchering their own leaders in turn - declaring that ''they'' were now the new rulers of The Americas (on the behalf of the Spanish Habsburgs). After a few decades the last of the Conquistadors died (often at each other's hands) and the monarchy began a centuries-long struggle to try and administer The Americas directly, something the Conquistadors' (often half-European, half-Amerindian) descendents tried to oppose.

Interestingly, the Castilians seem to have been the first to formalise the idea of 'Naval Infantry' what with their 'marine' forces being officially founded by King Carlos I Habsburg of Castile-Leon (aka King Carlos II Habsburg of the Crown of Aragon and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V Habsburg) in 1537. The basic military formation during the imaginary 'Golden Age' of 1560-1600 (during which the Spanish Habsburgs were more-or-less the only major Christian power in Europe given France's descent into a Religious Civil War) were the ''Tercios'', 1000-man formations of musketeers and pikemen in a ratio of about 3:1. The Tercio would be reformed after poor performance in the Thirty Years' War, with a new musketeer:pikemen ratio of 6:1 or more.

Spanish Military were deeply reformed with the arrival of the House of Bourbon to the Spanish Throne in 1700 and served in the American Revolution, where the King of Spain supported the newborn United States against the British Empire. Spanish Marines were able to defeat the British Redcoats on a battle during the American Revolution and its commander rode next to George Washington in the parade after the war was won. Indeed, Spain invented the concept of Marines. This was copied by the British, who were in turn copied by the Americans. During the invasion by Napoleon in 1808, the Army was mostly smashed by the Napoleonic forces (with the exception of Bailén, which was the first defeat of Napoleon's army ever, or the First Siege of Zaragoza), and most of the military actions were done by the guerrilla fighters spread out over all of Spain. It would take some time until Spain recovered an army.

Also included as a sub-branch of the Navy is the Spanish Marine Corps (Infanteria de Marina), the oldest in the world. It has a strength of 5,000 troops divided into base defense forces and landing forces. One of the three base defense battalions is stationed with each of the Navy headquarters. "Groups" (midway between battalions and regiments) are stationed in Madrid and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The Tercio (fleet — regiment equivalent) is available for immediate embarkation and based out of San Fernando. Its principal weapons include light tanks, armored combat vehicles, self-propelled artillery, and SPIKE antitank missiles.

The Spanish Armed Forces (''Fuerzas Armadas Españolas'') are the military forces of Spain. The King of Spain is the Commander in Chief and ultimate leader of the armed forces, holding the rank of Captain-General. The three branches of the Spanish Armed Forces are the Army (''Ejército de Tierra''), The Navy (''Armada Española'', the TropeNamer) and the Air Force (''Ejército del Aire'') with 80,000, 25,000 and 27,000 personnel respectively. After Franco's death Spain joined NATO and now participates in the Eurocorps.

* They never lost any of their [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_F-104_Starfighter F-104 Starfighters]], a plane that was nicknamed "The Widowmaker" and "the missile with a man in it" because of its unreliability.

The Spanish Armed Forces (''Fuerzas Armadas Españolas'') are the military forces of Spain. The King of Spain is the Commander in Chief and ultimate leader of the armed forces, holding the rank of Captain-General. The three branches of the Spanish Armed Forces are the Army (''Ejército de Tierra''), The Navy (''Armada Real Española'', the TropeNamer) and the Air Force (''Ejército del Aire'') with 80,000, 25,000 and 27,000 personnel respectively. After Franco's death Spain joined NATO and now participates in the Eurocorps.

!Armada Real Española

!Ejército de Tierra
!Ejército del Aire
The Spanish Air Force.

The earliest origins of the Spanish Army can be traced back to the late 15th century. The Catholic Monarchs of Castile-Leon and Aragon (Isabella and Ferdinand) developed a royal 'milicia' system of, well, militia to provide troops under direct Royal command to fight their war against the Moorish Duchy of Granada. The existence of these forces lessened and eventually ''removed'' the monarchy's need to rely on the nobility and clergy to provide troops for their wars. This reduced the sway both had over society in general and the monarchy in particular.