En 634, le calife Abu Bakr, beau-père et "successeur" de Mahomet, envoya ses armées conquérir les terres situées au nord de l'Arabie, vers Jérusalem. En une vingtaine d'années, la Perse, la Syrie et une grande partie de l'Afrique du Nord tombèrent entre les mains des musulmans. Les frontières de l'Islam s'étendirent alors de l'océan Atlantique aux montagnes de l'Afghanistan ; une expansion aussi rapide est unique dans l'Histoire. (page 16)
While the line of battle had yet to be invented, the Sovereign of the Seas represented an important step in the development of the ship-of-the-line. She also cost so much to build that Charles had to impose a ship tax (Ship Money) on his population – a levy that played a major part in the growing unrest that led to the outbreak of Civil War, and ultimately to Charles’s defeat and execution.
Historians like to bandy around the word 'revolution', particularly when it comes to matters military or naval.
Carved into the face of the building above the parade ground of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth is an inscription that reads, “It is on the Navy, under the goood providence of God, that our wealth and peace depend”.
When there was no convenient war between Englnd and Spain to provide a legitimate excuse for attacking Spanish shipping and coastal settlements, Morgan and his men carried on regardless.
That said, longevity was never much of a problem for pirates, as even the most successful (such as Bartholomew Roberts) never survived more than 2½ years as active cut-throats.
On 30 January 1649, with a single stroke of an axe, England became a
republic.