

Spain planned to 'invade' Australia in the 1790s with 100-vessel armada - Hooke
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/11369341/Spain-planned-to-invade-the-British-colony-in-Australia-in-1790s-with-100-vessel-armada.html

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spoiledtechie
Quite incredible. Imagine Australia speaking Spanish instead of English.

Its an extremely stable state. I would be reluctant to think it would still be
fought over today if Spain did try to take it.

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vacri
It probably would have been taken by the US in the Spanish-American War, just
like the Philippines were.

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forgottenacc56
I wish they'd do it now. We need a new government.

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vince_refiti
The Spanish government has screwed the Spanish economy up. No thanks.

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shanmoorthy
If this had transpired, maybe our idiot Prime Minister would've made Rafael
Nadal a caballero on Australia Day this year.

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vacri
Sounds like a pipe dream from the outset. 100 ships? Against a small colony on
the other side of the world? As a sense of scale, the Spanish Armada, expected
to take over England itself if it succeeded (albeit 200 years earlier) was 130
ships strong. And the first colonisation fleet sent by the British was only 11
ships. While not all ships are created equal, 100 ships is still an enormous
undertaking, especially at the limits of your supply lines.

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CapitalistCartr
Yeah, just to take a tiny colony 100 ships makes no sense. The English
colonists were frequently fighting with the Aborigines, so were fairly well
armed and defended against them, but not against cannon. I would think at most
a dozen frigates, and perhaps a half dozen support ships would be plenty, even
carrying a strong contingent of marines. The colony was still new and small.
Perhaps they expected the British navy to show up.

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marak830
And tkke on the world power of the English? I'm quite surprised!

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GFK_of_xmaspast
Is it only an invasion if it's against white people?

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lurcio
Post of the day!

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kokey
Cute. They couldn't even take Gibraltar then, and that was tiny and on their
border.

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Htsthbjig
How attacking a colonial settlement is "invading" Australia?.

In fact the British actually used to attack Spanish settlements at the time,
and supported piracy against the Spanish Armada.

It has very little to do with actual Australia. It were the British who
invaded Australia, killing most of the native population.

Go around Australia and see how many non whites there are. See who has all the
wealth on the country.

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lurcio
"supported piracy against the Spanish Armada"

I wish your statement of fact on this issue had been as well placed as your
sentiments.

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lazyant
It's semantics but just in case "Viewed from London, buccaneering was a low-
budget way to wage war on England's rival, Spain. So, the English crown
licensed buccaneers with letters of marque, legalizing their operations in
return for a share of their profits."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buccaneer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buccaneer)

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yareally
Pretty much all the major European powers handed out letters of marque to
privateers/mercenaries though and the practice predated buccaneers and the
Spanish Main. However, the British probably exploited their usage more than
any other nation against the Spanish from the 16th to the 18th century.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque)

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lazyant
indeed

