Philip II, or Felipe el Prudente, came to power at the peak of the Siglo de Oro Español: the Spanish Golden Age. Before anyone referred to Great Britain as the “empire on which the sun never sets,” the concept applied to Spain—el imperio donde nunca se pone el sol. At its peak, the empire included much of Central and South America including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and wide swaths of Africa. And it was the source of great wealth for Spain, particularly gold from Central and South America.
