The Greatest Story in the World, Period 3 by Horace G. Hutchinson

The event of chief importance in the story of the second half of the / seventeenth century is the gradual shifting of the power in Europe / from the hand of Spain into the hand of France. It was indeed in the / earlier half that Spain had begun to fail. We have noticed more than / once how, with all the far-flung possessions of her great ruling / family of Habsburg -- possessions in Italy, in Austria, in the / Netherlands -- she held France surrounded and hemmed in. On the other / hand, France had all the advantage which, as is well known, belongs / to the "central position. " She could throw her whole force into the / struggle on this side or on that far more easily than Spain could / mass her force on any one point. And the very fact that Spain had so / many possessions to defend proved in the end her weakness. She spent / her vast strength in the struggle. Moreover, she had inflicted on / herself a great loss by driving out of the country the converted Jews / and the converted Mahommedans. The last of the latter were expelled / in the tenth year of the seventeenth century, and the Jews had gone / long before. Both were intelligent and industrious people, and Spain / thus lost a most valuable section of her population.

She had immense wealth coming to her from America, but the transport / of this wealth made a heavy demand on her fleet. When Elizabeth was / {90} on the throne of England, English seamen, by their constant / attacks, drained much of the life-blood of the Spanish fleet. Under / the vacillating rule of the Stuarts, English attacks on the Spanish / treasure ships grew inconsiderable, but another formidable menace to / Spain had arisen in the sea-power of the Dutch.