"The sheer scale and audacity of the plan were products of Spain's luckiest century - and may have represented its peak. By the 1540s, Spanish explorers had named the Philippines after their crown prince, the soon-to-be Philip II, who would reign for almost the entire second half of the 16th century. In 1571, they took control of Manila, which they quickly turned into a glittering trade hub, an entrepôt linking Spain's New World silver with Chinese silks and porcelains."
"When Spain absorbed Portugal in 1580, Madrid also gained control over the Portuguese colony of Macau, its first real toehold on the Chinese mainland. Throughout these heady, expansive years, a gallery of governors, missionaries, and traders fed Madrid a steady stream of intelligence on the fabulous yet still mostly mysterious Chinese Empire. Rather than as a sleeping dragon, China in many of these reports was painted as vast, rich, and soft: a piñata ripe for the whacking."
King Philip II conceived la Empresa de China, an expansive scheme to turn Ming-dynasty China into a Habsburg outpost. Spanish confidence grew from rapid, lucrative conquests in the Americas and a century of imperial momentum. Explorers named the Philippines for Philip and established Manila in 1571 as a transpacific entrepôt connecting New World silver with Chinese silks and porcelains. The 1580 union with Portugal brought control of Macau, providing a tangible foothold on the Chinese coast. Reports from governors, missionaries, and traders portrayed China as vast, wealthy, and vulnerable, inspiring a variety of bold engagement and conquest plans.
Read at Big Think
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