The Crowd-Funded War

In the wake of the failure of the Spanish Armada, England sought retaliation by launching an invasion of its own. But how to finance such a venture?

Sophie Shorland | Published in History Today Volume 71 Issue 2 February 2021

The Summons to Surrender: an Incident in the Spanish Armada, by George Vicat Cole, 19th century. — An Incident in the Spanish Armada, by George Vicat Cole, 19th century © Bridgeman Images.

Commercial interests often have a place in war, from the sales of dead soldiers’ teeth after Waterloo to the possible connection between the Iraq War and Big Oil. However, no war was as blatantly commercial as that waged by the English Armada of 1589, paid for by a 16th-century version of crowd funding.