The Spanish Empire itself grew to encompass much of the territory that it would hold in the Americas, and extended the tenets of loyalty to the Catholic monarchy there, as well as reinforcing it (as well as they could manage) in the European portions outside of mainland Spain. It led to the apex of Spanish hegemony in Europe and after the battle against England with the Armada, it led to the ascendance of other powers in the colonial arena and Spain's own gradual decline.
