Habsburg Spain

Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries (1516–1700), when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty (also associated with its role in the history of Central Europe). The Habsburg rulers (chiefly Charles I and Philip II) reached the zenith of their influence and power, controlling territory, including the Americas, the East Indies, the Low Countries and territories now in France and Germany in Europe, the Portuguese Empire from 1580 to 1640, various other territories such as small enclaves like Ceuta and Oran in North Africa. This period of Spanish history has also been referred to as the "Age of Expansion".

Under the Habsburgs, Spain dominated Europe politically and militarily for much of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries but experienced a gradual decline of influence in the second half of the seventeenth century under the later Habsburg kings.

The Habsburg years were also a Spanish Golden Age of cultural efflorescence. Among the most outstanding figures of this period were Teresa of Ávila, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Miguel de Cervantes, El Greco, Domingo de Soto, Francisco Suárez, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco de Vitoria.