Was Spanish Empire at the height of its power during 16th century the most powerful state in the world ?

Was Spanish Empire at the height of its power during 16th century the most powerful state in the world ?

Thank you Spain for giving us Christianity yours truly Las Islas Filipinas.

>Country was named after a Spanish guy

Is there a more cucked country than Phillipines?

No.

There is a whole continent naned after a spanish guy...

We wuz colonizers n shieett

can you elaborate? France was really the only challenger of Spain in the 16th century

Yes, well done Spain well done Spain. HOWEVER

>spanish

Nope.

It was a Major European power, but stood in equal with cunts like France.
In Americas, sure it was.
In Southeast Asia, it was dead scared in pissing off either China or Japan.

Superpowers as we know them only showed up after WWII.

>but stood in equal with cunts like France.
it was more powerful than France alone at its height
it even held off most of Europe attacking it for a good while before breaking down due to massive inflation.

>it was more powerful than France alone at its height
True, Spain was the most powerful in the 16th century

>before breaking down due to massive inflation.
Shitty excuse
France simply grew more powerful than them and killed their hegemony at Rocroi before killing their very relevancy a while later with Napoleon
Spain was first killed militarily, the economical failure was a consequence of that

If you're referring to Amerigo Vespucci, I've got news for you.

> Superpowers as we know them only showed up after WWII.

you can't possibly be serious. British/French empire were at it's height at the end of 19th century. And were without doubt "superpowers".

It was the most powerful state at the time and could be considered first global power. The term "The empire upon which the sun never sets" was coined for Phillip's Spain.

Because it was doomed to fall in a short time. Not because of hindsight, but because of the way it managed it's economy. The spanish empire ruined itself by massively inflating it's economy without control from all that gold and silver it brought back from the new world, and though they were extremely rich with a formidable naval force, it wouldn't last long. It depends on how you define powerful, but the precarious state the Spanish stood on doesn't feel that powerful to me.

Not really.
Like there are many that got fucked but none that have so many fucked up complexes and cultural syndromes.

France was not an equal of Spain before 17th century and 30 years war. Spain's only equal in military terms at 16th century was Ottomans. Suleiman essentially "won" against Habsburg alliance but was stopped dead on his tracks after Hungary.

Spain was defeated in the sea by the Dutch around 1630 (the Armada thing wasnt so important, hegemony at the sea was lost to the Netherlands, not to England), and by the French in Rocroi 10 years later, but they had a century of military hegemony, from the Italian wars to to 1630-1640.
They even captured the king of France.

The Spanish lost their military hegemony when Pikemen became completely obsolete.

France always had 2 to 3 times the population of Spain. France used to be the demographic giant of Europe.
Nowadays is the most even France and Spain have ever been in population.

Also, Aragon and Portugal didnt help Castille with soldiers, the armies were made mainly of Castilians + their Italian allies (Milan and Naples), + what is now Belgium + mercenaries.

I would compare Spain to Macedon, they sucess ruined them, they overachieved and didnt have the manpower to colonize all that land + fight wars against France + England + The Turks + The Netherlands etc etc at the same time

Alexander conquered the Persian empire with 40.000 macedonian soldiers, and Macedonia was never relevant again. they were drained by their sucess.
The XIX British Empire had many times the population of XV, XVI, XVII century Spain, and technology had advanced a lot. Spain even in its decadence still had the largest colonial empire in the napoleonic age.

Aragon didn't contribute to European armies but a lot of nobility from Aragon did go to new world and joined expeditions.

The colonies were a posession of the crown of Castille, and most of the people who emmigrated there were from Andalucia, Extremadura (both Cortes and Pizarro were from there), or the cantabrian region, mainly basques.
Only when the bourbons came after the war of Spanish succession, Catalans were allowed to emmigrate to the Americas.
With the Habsburgs the American territories werent even colonies, they were kingdoms like those of Spain "Reino de la Nueva Granada" etc

No, that was the name of an Italian guy

What the fuck? I think you're forgetting the Ottomans, that was the entire theme of the whole century, Habsburgs fighting off the Turks.

>Spain was defeated in the sea by the Dutch around 1630 (the Armada thing wasnt so important, hegemony at the sea was lost to the Netherlands, not to England),
durr
The Dutch took advantage of the situation after the Armada was destroyed, of course it was important.

No, just Great Powers. The world was still multipolar even at the height of British and/or French power. Neither ever achieved the kind of hegemonic or bipolar control that the US and the USSR achieved post-WW2.