King Philip II

EconomicsMovieKing Philip II obtained the thrown of Spain from his farther, the Roman Emperor Charles V. Philip inherited a lot of land in South America, including most of modern Brazil, Peru, Honduras and Mexico. Despite all he owned, King Philip still managed to mount debt throughout his reign of Spain.

King Philip had difficulty managing money because he kept encountering many different financial burdens. The second half of Philip's reign was dominated by the revolt of the Netherlands. Although the Dutch were eventually suppressed by King Philip, victory was obtained with much expense to Spain’s wealth.

English support of the Dutch rebels and their persistent attacks on Spanish shipping led King Philip attempt to invade England. This was to be done by his invincible Spanish Armada. In 1588, the Spanish armada was defeated by the quicker English Navy. The loss of a large part of the Armada was devastating for Spain.

English: Philip II of Spain.

Español: Retrato de Felipe II de España por Anth...

Philip II, King of Spain, by unknown artist. See s...

Since the Americas had been reached before King Philip II took thrown, the Spanish established colonies during his reign. Before King Philip’s reign, Spain saw endless gold from Hernando Cortez’s capture of Aztec’s gold in the 1530s. Incoming gold from Americas decreased in quantity since then.

King Philip did not feel the need to help stimulate Spain’s economy by investing in it. Instead he relied completely on having gold brought in from the Americas. From this gold, he had bought everything he needed from other European countries, the ones which actually produced their own products to sell to Spain. When incoming American gold became inadequate, he unsuccessfully placed increasingly burdensome taxation on his people and took out loans. This angered his people since Spain never had a simulating economy to begin with. All this was not enough to finance his foreign wars and interventions throughout the world.