History of Europe and its lands. The European religious wars between German and Spanish rulers. The Reconquista ended Muslim rule in Iberia. By the 1490s a series of oceanic explorations marked the Age of Discovery, establishing direct links with Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Religious wars continued to be fought in Europe, until the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. The Spanish crown maintained its hegemony in Europe and was the leading power on the continent until the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which ended a conflict between Spain and France that had begun during the Thirty Years' War. An unprecedented series of
Treaty of Madrid (1670) Treaty of Madrid (1670) The Treaty of Madrid (also known as the Godolphin Treaty) adopted in July 1670 was a treaty between England and Spain 'for the settlement of all disputes in America '.<ref name="SP 108/470"></ref> The treaty officially ended the war begun in 1654 in the Caribbean, in which England had conquered Jamaica. The treaty was highly favourable to England, as its ownership of territories in the Caribbean Sea was confirmed by Spain. The Anglo-Spanish war had begun in late 1654; in Europe the conflict ended with the Treaty of the Pyrenees (between France and Spain) and Charles II's