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.Yet if the Netherlands escaped the direct control of Philip, their wealth might be appropriated at its source.The Portuguese were still intrenched in the East, and Dutch prosperity was in no small part founded onprivileges granted at Lisbon.Philip's opportunity came in 1580 when a disputed succession to the throneopened the way to intervention and the rapid conquest of Portugal.At a stroke the Portuguese dominions inAfrica and the East Indies were added to Spain's American possessions.Throughout Europe Philip wasthought to have played a winning card; for the most desired sources of the world's wealth were at the disposalof the Catholic king if he could but police the sea.But so complete a monopoly was not to be endured by hisrivals; and France, Holland, and England, as a necessary prelude to their colonizing activities in the NewWorld and in the Old, gathered their forces to dispute the maritime supremacy of Spain.IIIt was well understood that the power of Philip II depended upon his American treasure, and his treasure uponhis control of the sea."The Emperor can carry on war against me only by means of the riches which he drawsfrom the West Indies," cried Francis I when Verrazano brought home some treasure taken from Spanish shipsin Western waters.And Francis Bacon expressed the belief of the age when he wrote that "money is theprincipal part of the greatness of Spain; for by that they maintain their veteran army.But in this part, of allothers, is most to be considered the ticklish and brittle state of the greatness of Spain.Their greatnessconsisteth in their treasure, their treasure in the Indies, and their Indies (if it be well weighed) are indeed butan accession to such as are masters of the sea."It was not for France to contest the maritime supremacy of Spain in the sixteenth century.The wars of FrancisI and Charles V bred a swarm of corsairs who harassed Spanish trade and penetrated even to the West Indies;but before 1559 the resources of the French Government were mainly devoted to resisting the Hapsburgs inEurope, and after 1563 the country was distracted by civil war.The Mediterranean proved, indeed, anattractive field for French commercial expansion.The common enmity of French and Turk toward theCHAPTER II 19Hapsburg found expression in the commercial treaty of 1536 between Solyman and Francis I, and in thefollowing half-century the "political and commercial influence of France became predominant in the Moslemstates." But in Western waters the activity of France was slight.Without the naval strength to resist Spain, shecould not afford to offend Portugal, who was her effective ally.Francis I interdicted expeditions to Brazilbecause the Portuguese King protested, and Coligny's Huguenot colony in Florida was destroyed by theSpaniard Menendez in 1565.Breton fishermen plied their trade off the Grand Banks; but in this century theonly French expedition having permanent results for colonization was undertaken in 1534 and 1535 byJacques Cartier, who sailed up the St.Lawrence as far as Montreal, and in the name of Francis I tookpossession of the country which was to be known as New France.The Dutch did yeoman service against the navy of Philip during the war of independence, but the task ofbreaking the maritime power of Spain fell mainly to England in the age of Elizabeth.Cabot's notable voyagewas without immediate result.Neither the frugal Henry VII, who gave "£10 to him that found the new isle,"nor his extravagant son, who was engaged in separating England from Rome and in enriching the treasurywith the spoils of the monasteries, coveted the colonies of Spain or greatly feared her power in Europe.ButElizabeth, seated on the throne by precarious tenure, confronted at home and abroad by the rising fanaticismof the Catholic reaction, found the ambition of Philip a menace to national independence.And she knew wellthat Spain must be met in the Netherlands and on the sea [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]