While these things were transpiring, great changes had taken place in the maritime and commercial affairs of the world. Bold navigators had sailed along the whole eastern coast of America, and a large part of the western coast. Tolerably accurate maps of the outlines of the western hemisphere, had been published as early as 1590. After these discoveries, the great centers of commerce were no longer to be found on the shores of the Mediterranean, but had shifted to the shores of the Atlantic.
England by her geographical position, betwixt the two continents, and in the very center of the inhabitable portion of the earth, as well as the indomitable energy of her sons, had rapidly become the foremost commercial nation of the world.
The great naval armament called the Invincible Armada, was equipped for the subjugation of England; but in the providence of God she destroyed the Armada and paralysed the influence of Spain.
In May, 1588, a Spanish fleet of one hundred and thirty ships sailed from the harbor of Lisbon for the English coast. Some of these ships were the largest that had yet been built; they carried eight thousand sailors, and twenty thousand Spanish troops. The pope had blessed the expedition and offered the sovereignty of England as the conqueror's prize. The Catholics throughout Europe were so confident of success that they named the armament "The Invincible Armada." So vast was the number of ships that, as they sailed along in the form of an inverted V (thus ^), or in the form of a vast flock of wild geese, the distance from one extremity of the fleet to the other was more than seven miles.
But they were destined to realize that
"God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm."
Scarcely had the fleet entered the English channel when a storm arose which lasted more than a week. The wind blew a perfect gale from the south-west, so that it was impossible for them to return if they had so desired. The line of battle could no longer be kept up. They drifted helplessly and in disorder up the straits of Dover. When nearly opposite Calais, the English loaded several vessels with gunpowder, set them on fire and sent them into the Spanish fleet. The explosions caused terrible havoc. The Spanish admiral no longer thought of victory, but only of escape. But his disasters were not yet ended. Many of his vessels were wrecked on the shores of Norway and Scotland. In returning around the north coast of Ireland a second storm was experienced with almost equal loss. Only a few shattered vessels of this mighty armament returned to Spain to bring intelligence of the calamities that had overwhelmed the rest. The defeat of the Armada was regarded even then as the work of Providence. The Spanish king, when he heard the news, exclaimed, "I did not expect to fight the elements!" Thus was the triumph of the Protestant cause secured, the lovers of freedom throughout Europe were encouraged, and the power of Spain forever paralysed in the affairs of Europe. Henceforth the commerce and prosperity of Spain declined. King Philip, who had planned the Armada, died in 1598, and bequeathed a vast debt to his nation whose resources were already exhausted, notwithstanding her rich mines of gold and silver in the new world. In 1589, the next year after the destruction of the Armada, Henry IV,, the first Protestant king of France, ascended the throne, and by the Edict of Nantes secured to the Protestants the free exercise of their religion.
England, at that time the mistress of the seas, held the keys of the commerce of Europe. Her long conflict with her Catholic sovereigns, and the Catholic powers of Europe, had taught her self-reliance, and had educated her people in the principles of self-government. Her laws were the best the world then new. Henceforth she became the favored land of the seed of Abraham, and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation.
The foregoing will indicate to some extent the condition of society in Europe at the beginning of the seventeenth century. It is not surprising that under such circumstances men began to look toward America, as the land of refuge, where the institutions of liberty might be planted and fostered, and political institutions framed which would insure unto all, life, liberty and religious toleration.