FACTOID #31: Think Antarctica is inhospitable? Think again - its land area is only ninety-eight percent ice. Reassuringly, the other 2% is "barren rock".
Cape Trafalgar (Spanish: Cabo Trafalgar) is a headland in Cadiz Province in the South-West of Spain. The name appears to be derived from the Arabic, Taraf al-Gharb, which means Cape of the West. The Battle of Trafalgar, a 1805 naval battle in which the Royal Navy destroyed Napoleon's combined Spanish and French fleet took place off the cape. The bay at San Sebastián, Spain A Headland is an area of land adjacent to water on three sides. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Battle of Trafalgar, (French: la bataille de Trafalgar, Spanish: la batalla de Trafalgar) fought on 21 October 1805, was the most significant naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars and the pivotal naval battle of the 19th century. ... 1805 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the armed services, being the oldest of its three branches. ... For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ...
The destruction wrought upon the Spanish fleet at Trafalgar directly triggered a series of consequences which led to the loss of the colonies in the Americas, and Spain's slump from the status of world superpower.
The brief mentions of Trafalgar in Spanish school textbooks mostly blame the French admiral, Villeneuve, whose bungled command of the French-Spanish fleet not only overlooked the talents of the Spanish admirals and the potency of their fleet, but even scorned the valour of their sailors.
At CapeTrafalgar itself - where up till now the only reminder of the battle has been the name of a local beach, 'The Beach of the Dead', in gruesome reference to the sailors' bodies washed ashore – there is to be built a monument to 'Peace and Harmony'.
Trafalgar, battle of (trəfăl'gər), naval engagement fought off CapeTrafalgar on the SW coast of Spain on Oct. 21, 1805, in which the British fleet under Horatio Nelson won a famous victory over the allied French and Spanish fleets under Pierre de Villeneuve.
The Battle of Trafalgar, fought on 21 October 1805, is part of the War of the Third Coalition assembled by Britain against France.
Although the victory at Trafalgar was typically given as the reason at the time, modern analysis by historians such as Paul Kennedy suggests that relative economic strength was a more important underlying cause of British naval mastery.
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