<Tr> <Td> Puerto Rico </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="3"> Warning: Value not specified for "continent" </Td> </Tr> <P> The Spanish Empire (Spanish: Imperio español) was one of the largest empires in history . At the time, it was not known as that by Spaniards, but rather the Spanish Monarchy (Monarquía española) with the monarch ruling kingdoms in Spain, the possessions of the king in Italy and northern Europe, and in the "Spanish Indies," its New World territories . From the late fifteenth century to the early nineteenth, Spain's kingdom of Castile controlled a huge overseas territory in the New World . The crown's main source of wealth was from gold and silver mined in Mexico and Peru . The empire reached the peak of its military, political and economic power under the Spanish Habsburgs, through most of the 16th and 17th centuries, and its greatest territorial extent under the House of Bourbon in the 18th century . The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power of its time and it was the first to be called' The empire on which the sun never sets' . </P> <P> Religious unity under Roman Catholicism was achieved in Spain, following the completion of the Christian reconquest of Spain in 1492, and the expulsion of Jews from Spain that same year . In Spanish overseas expansion, Queen Isabel's top priority was the conversion of pagan indigenous peoples (the "spiritual conquest") and their incorporation into the Christian community of faith . For the papacy, this was a key factor in justifying Spanish military conquest and it granted the right of crown patronage in its New World territories . The monarch's authority enlarged by its support of the Roman Catholic Church . </P>

What did newly discovered land mean for spain in the 16th century