THE Battle of Trafalgar it was one of the greatest naval battles in history. Occurring in October 1805, they fought on opposite sides in the battle for english squad, on the one hand, and the French and Spanish squads, from another. This battle took place at Cape Trafalgar, on the southern coast of Spain, near the Strait of Gibraltar.
The Battle of Trafalgar was part of the Napoleonic wars waged between France and England. At that time, the battle called into question the invasion of the British Isles, a pretense of Napoleon Bonaparte in ending English economic and military power. Napoleon's objective was to direct the fleets that were in the Mediterranean to support other fleets that were close to the English Channel.
The French and Spanish ships, 33 in number, positioned themselves in a line, in a common strategy of fight between ships to sailing at the time, because this positioning made it possible to attack with tanks, located on the sides of the vessels. In single file and with ships directed laterally to the enemy, the attack area was expanded during battles.
However, to overcome this battle strategy that lasted for days, with no real advances in the disputes, the English Admiral and Lord Horatio Nelson put in place a different strategy. With the formation of two columns of ships, Lord Nelson intended to overcome the lines of Franco-Spanish ships, causing great damage with the use of artillery close to the ships. After overcoming the lines, the English ships would fan out, starting to attack the rear of the Franco-Spanish ships.
The British Navy emerged victorious from the battle, causing great damage to Napoleon Bonaparte's naval forces. Another characteristic of the battle that guaranteed the victory to the English was the transmission of the strategy to the others commanders, who had autonomy to carry out their functions, not needing Horatio's voice of command Nelson.
After this defeat at Trafalgar, Bonaparte gave up trying to invade England, adopting another tactic against the English, that of the Continental Blockade.
Lord Nelson became an English military hero because, in addition to this victory at Trafalgar, he had already defeated French forces on another occasion, right after the Battle of the Pyramids in 1798. However, he cannot enjoy the glory achieved due to a mortal wound caused by a musket during the fight in Trafalgar. Lord Nelson ended up dying during the battle.
By Tales Pinto
Master in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/guerras/inglaterra-franca-na-batalha-trafalgar.htm