Beyond the Atlantic he was lord of the most splendid portions
of the New World, which Columbus found "for Castile and Leon." The
empires of Peru and Mexico, New Spain, and Chile, with their abundant
mines of the precious metals, Espanola and Cuba, and many other of the
American islands were provinces of the sovereign of Spain.
Whatever diminution the Spanish empire might have sustained in the
Netherlands seemed to be more than compensated by the acquisition of
Portugal, which Philip had completely conquered in 1580. Not only that
ancient kingdom itself, but all the fruits of the maritime enterprises
of the Portuguese, had fallen into Philip's hands. All the Portuguese
colonies in America, Africa, and the East Indies acknowledged the
sovereignty of the King of Spain, who thus not only united the whole
Iberian peninsula under his single sceptre, but had acquired a
transmarine empire little inferior in wealth and extent to that which he
had inherited at his accession. The splendid victory which his fleet, in
conjunction with the papal and Venetian galleys, had gained at Lepanto
over the Turks, had deservedly exalted the fame of the Spanish marine
throughout Christendom; and when Philip had reigned thirty-five years,
the vigor of his empire seemed unbroken, and the glory of the Spanish
arms had increased, and was increasing throughout the world.
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