Manila Galleon being attacked by British ship.
As the Dutch ascended, Spain, in comparison, suffered her share of setbacks: she had lost her crucial claim to the Moluccas and the spice trade to Portugal in 1529. But she was far from being outdone. Spain had gained a foothold in the Pacific by colonizing the Philippine archipelago and, thanks to the ingenuity of the circumnavigator and Augustinian friar Andrés de Urdaneta (1498-1568), had discovered a fast and efficient return route across the Pacific to Mexico, a critical factor to the commercial success of the Spanish expedition to the East Indies.