A War Held in the Sea

For 200 years England weakened to Spain, without declaring the war.  After the disaster of the attempt to invade England with the Great Navy, Great Britain felt safe. With the corsairs expeditions was enriched, while avoided that the Gold arrived at the coffers of the Spanish Crown. England becoming more and more rich, and Spain increasingly with more expenses for the need to fortify the colonies of American and maintain a marine defense of the coasts.

It forced Spain to invest enormous amounts of Gold, in the defenses of the Colonies of America. They had to create convoys of escort, to avoid the capture of Galleons. Soon there were two permanent defensive fleets: one in the Caribbean and another in the south of the Spanish Peninsula, which served as coastguard.

This piracy greatly limited the maritime traffic between America and Spain, due to the insecurity caused by the constant attacks of privateers and pirates. The ships only dared to travel grouped in convoys with military protection twice a year.