Did you ever have a history teacher who was also a good sailor? Did you ever have a history teacher who knew anything about navigation? Did you ever have a history teacher who knew anything about math? Did you ever have a history teacher who knew anything about farming? I did not think so. I think that is why most people know so little about history. History only starts with "what" happened. The main lessons from history are "why" it happened. If you don't know "why", you really don't know history. That is the objective of this blog.
One of the main difficulties with learning history is that you have to unlearn a lot of misinformation. If you start off in the wrong direction, be for you can go in the right direction you have to back track from how far you went wrong. For most people, they are not interested in Real History enough to ever turn back from the wrong direction, so here goes.
When I was in school, we learned how the bad Spanish navy tried to invade England with their big "Armada". That was the first time I had ever hear the big word "Armada". I was impressed. Per the history that I was taught, the Armada was caught in a big storm and most of their ships were destroyed. End of Spain and the beginning of the dominance of England. With me so far? Now the Real History.
The Spanish armada did sail up to England and they did fight the English navy, but this went much differently. The English ships were smaller than those of the Spanish and were both faster and about to "Point Higher". Pointing higher means being able to sail at a greater angle into the wind. I have a C&C34 that can sail about 30 degrees off the wind. I can not sail directly into the wind, but I can sail at a good angle into the wind. The Spanish ships could not sail well into the wind and thus were at a major disadvantage to the English ships. It would be like the English having the high ground and the Spanish down in the valley or the English had cavalry and the Spanish just had foot soldiers. The result was the Spanish were losing the battle due to the English's ability to "point higher".
The Commodore of the Spanish navy decided to, rather than continue the battle, to sail all the way around England and come at them from the West end of the English Channel. That is what they all did. They sailed around Scotland and were sailing West. They knew their latitude, but not their longitude. They were figuring their longitude based on "dead reckoning", which takes into account their speed and time. This is the same way that you would figure out a trip in your car. The problem was that the Spanish navy did not know there was a current in the sea that flowed from the West and they were sailing into that current. The result was that they were "not" as far West as they thought. When the Commodore calculated that the armada was far enough West, he ordered them to turn South. The result was that during fog and night time, most of the ships crashed into the Northern shores of England, Scotland and Ireland. There was no big storm as you were told in your history books.
The net result was that, now England had all its navy and most of Spain's navy had been destroyed. England, thus had the strongest navy in the world. There is even more.
About this same time England started to also have its ships hit rocky shores during the night or in fog. They realized that they needed a way to determine longitude while at sea. The only way that they could see to do this was if they had a very accurate clock. An Englishman by the Name of John Harrison built a clock that could keep time accurate to the degree needed and this added to England's ability to sail without the risk of sinking their expensive ships. This clock had more to do with the power of England than any King or Queen or Poet. Why didn't we find all this out in our history class? The clock answers the "why", but all you learned was "what". There is more.
What started the industrial revolution in Europe? The steam engine? No! It was the potato from the New World. The potato from the Native Americans. Europe finally had enough food to feed their people and the population boomed. Fewer farmers were needed so their were workers available to work in factories. Without the potato, the industrial revolution would never have happened.
I just pointed out three significant answers to "why". The ability of a sail boat to "point higher". The ability to calculate longitude while at sea, the accurate clock. Finally, the potato. How is that for a history lesson?
