When did Spain start being the dominant power in Europe? When did it stop?

1492 saw unification, the completion of the Reconquista and major Spanish sponsored discoveries in the New World.
Charles V was without a doubt the most powerful man in the world but Spain's inability to subordinate smaller protestant dominions show major cracks - the failure of the spanish armada and the success of the Dutch revolt forecasted the rise of England and the United provinces on the world stage.
The war of the Mantuan Succession and the Franco-Spanish war point to at-least a parity between Spain and France. That the War of the Grand Alliance was as close as it was reveals France's dominance.

I think you could roughly say:

> Spain: 1492 - late 17th century
> France: late 17th - 1760s
> Britain: 1760s - late 19th century
> Germany: late 19th century - 1940s
> ??? Don't think Europeans are allowed nations anymore

>1760s
lol

Starated at the end of 15th century.
Ended in mid 17th century.
Spain was still a great power until Napoleon fucked them over and then they lost colonies and descended into chaos which meant they were mostly irrelevant in the following century.
Finally, Eternal Yank attacked them at the end of 19th century, and they lost last remnants of their colonial empire.

>France wasn't the dominant European power under Napoleon.

>Russia wasn't dominant in the immediate aftermath of Napoleon

>USSR not dominant from 1945-1991

France wasn't the dominant European power under Napoleon.
>Be dominant power
>Scared to invade neighbor to north
>Invade in all other directions trying to expand and consolidate in order to invade neighbor to north
>Fail
>Neighbor to north invades and you surrender to neighbor in north
Dominance is defined as "power and influence over others." seeing as Britain was able to keep so many nations at arms and localize French influence to the continent it's hard to say they're not the dominant power.

Russia is barely European, if we're going by dominant power operating in Europe then it would be the USA from 1945 and probably still.

1498-1640

7 October 1571 at the battle of Lepanto is when it started.

Why?

Spain lost the war of the holy league but the cost of winning that war crippled the Ottoman Empire for the next two decades. Both parities were bankrupt inside five years of that battle but the Spain crown came out of it okay by opening new sliver mines in south america.

The cost for the Ottomans was...
>rebuilding their navy then figuring out in 1576 they had to let their ships rot in harbor & sell of their galley slaves.
> Not being able to fund a navy for the next 30 years after that.
> Allies in north Africa becoming disloyal after they figured out "No Ottoman navy=equal no plan to aid them in the event of a war"
>rising the price of iron, bronze, and slave sky high for a long time to come.
>selling off a large volume of government lands.
> Egypt having very real though of breaking free for the next 12 years.
> Also officials in Egypt pocketing 60% of taxes due the central government for that period of time in order to build a war fund.
> A large number of merchant banks going belly up when the state had its bankruptcy because they had been force to give more loads to the state then they should of.
> The merchant banks still open made a point to move out of the capital thus causing Istanbul to lose economic influence over the rest of the Empire.

The Ottoman Empire did recover with time but it took a lot longer then the Spain Empire did. By that time Spain was just the stronger power.

>>Germany late 19th century
I hope you mean continental power and influence, Germany was less economically or industrially successful as the US and British Empire.

From the unification of Castile and Aragon in 1463 to roughly 1700, with Louis's politician unification of France and the decline of Spain's empire due to inflation. From 1700 to 1813 France was dominant, then Britain from 1813 to 1940.

1503 (Battle of Cerignola)- 1648 (Peace of Westphalia)

1588 is when it stopped.