Posted on 12/10/2011 9:24:58 AM PST by TBBT
Feet on the ground “own” territory. Anything else is just hot air. And Spain had a lot of hot air, but very few feet.
The answer is they were NOWHERE. France had but 20 million ~ and that population hadn't grown in 150 years. Spain had substantial population growth in the 1400 and 1500s ~ and could boast about 8.5 million. The Italian peninsula made 13 million, and Scandinavia (Swedish Empire) had nearly 2 million! Their close ally, England was pushing 5 million.
Poland had maybe 9 million but were hemmed in by Germany, Swedish Empire, Russia and the Carpathian mountains. Not a good spot to be to go somewhere.
The German states would have been 15 million tops.
We have NUMEROUS states with far more population than these European powers in or near 1600.
The Americas South of the Rio Grande are conceded by most authorities to have had at least 50 million by 1492, and less than that by 1600. Today Spain alone has about 50 million. Time has been very, very good to Spain.
North America had been more heavily populated 800 years earlier ~ recurring plagues, climate "changes", and so on caused serious disruptions in the head count.
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