To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern WorldTo Rule the Waves tells the extraordinary story of how Britain's Royal Navy allowed one nation to rise to power unprecedented in history. From its beginnings under Henry VIII and adventurers like John Hawkins and Francis Drake, the Royal Navy toppled one world eco nomic system, built by Spain and Portugal after Christopher Columbus, and ushered in another the one in which we still live today. In the sixteenth century, such men as Hawkins, Drake, and