What are the causes of the Spanish Armarda?

Answer 1

I'm not totally sure I know what you mean by the "caused".

1) If you mean, how did it come to exist? - Spain created its Armada to defend its shipments of goods and resources, including American gold and silver, to Spain from its colonies. It also used the Armada to control shipping lanes and trade, which allowed it to dominate the early age of exploration, becoming the wealthiest and most powerful empire in the 16th century.

2) If you mean, "why did Spain attack England with the Armada?" - This was certainly what it is now most famous for since it was such a stunning defeat. It was part personal, part political, and part religious - Philip II of Spain, who was the former husband of Mary Tudor (a.k.a. Bloody Mary in England). Mary Tudor was the Catholic daughter of Henry VIII, and her reign in England was cut short after only 4 years by cancer. She was succeeded by her protestant sister, Elisabeth I (a.k.a. the Virgin Queen). Both Mary and Elisabeth ruled during the religious wars of the 16th century, and each enforced their religion on England, as all monarchs did at the time. Fast forward 30 years, Philip II had returned to Spain after his Mary's death, and had long since become King of Spain. He had hoped to unify the crowns of England and Spain through their marriage, and had even proposed to Elisabeth when she became queen of England, but was turned down. Elisabeth had returned the country to Protestantism, was perceived by Philip to be an infidel queen after the oppression of Catholic dissenters in England and the execution of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scotts. Elisabeth I had also commissioned English pirates to plunder Spanish ships carrying American gold. The combination of Philip II personal animus towards Elisabeth, his long-standing hope to see the Spanish and English crown's united, a need to curb pirate attacks on Spanish ships, and a desire to see England return to Catholicism and free English Catholics, the Spanish Armada was sent. The Armada’s mission was to lead and invasion of England, kill or capture Elisabeth, and make England part of the Spanish Empire under the Spanish crown.

3) If you mean, what caused the Spanish Armada to be defeated? There are several reasons: faster and more strategic English ships, superior English weapons, poor Spanish leadership and some strategic errors in battle, and poor coordination between the Spanish Armada and the invading army among the most prominent. All of these led battle weary Spanish ships too far north as they tried to escape through the top of the English Channel, where poor weather finished off what was left of and already depleted Armada.