Spanish Empire
For a time, the Spanish Empire was a great power in the oceans, with its experienced Navy. Its infantry known as Tercios, recruited from many countries under the rule of the Spanish monarchy, was undefeated for a century a half. Spain enjoyed a cultural golden age in the 16th and 17th centuries. Cervantes, who was the creator of the first modern novel Don Quixote, and many others such as Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, and Francisco de Quevedo were prominent in different branches of Literature, Architecture, Theology, Philosophy and so on.