“La Empresa de China” (detail)
In the 1580s, at the height of the arrogance of its empire (which included Portugal), Spain devised a crazy plan to absorb what it lacked from the world. “The Chinese Expedition” involved conquering China with a Portuguese-Spanish armada and advancing west to attack the Ottomans.
At the end of the 16th century, Spain conceived an audacious plan, which was called “The China Company“, to conquer Ming dynasty China and incorporate it into a Habsburg Empire of global reach.
The idea was to send a powerful Portuguese-Spanish armada from the Philippines, seize ports, march on Beijing and transform China into a Christian power led by Spain, which would extend throughout Asia, says .
In reality, “The Chinese Expedition” was a mix of propagandamissionary ambition and geopolitical fantasywhich would show that, even at the height of its empire, the Spain’s reach exceeded its real power.
Bullfighting in Beijing, Chinese conquerors capturing Constantinople from the Spanish and a Habsburg Empire circling the globe. This was, around 1580, King Philip II’s fever dream from Spain, and it was as delusional as it sounds.
The plan to transform Ming China into an outpost of Habsburg Spain did not come out of nowhere. It had been conceived at the end of the 16th century, when Spain was going through a century of divine luck and relentless efficiency.
Shortly after Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492, Cortés overthrew the Aztec Empire (1521) and Pizarro did the same to the Incas (1533). These quick victories seemed providential. Would it be possible repeat the feat in Asia?
The scale and audacity of the plan were product of Spain’s most prosperous century — and perhaps represented its peak.
In the 1540s, Spanish explorers they had baptized the Philippines in honor of Philip II, who would reign almost throughout the second half of the 16th century. In 1571, they took Manila, quickly transforming it into a bustling center of commerce, connecting the silver from the Americas with Chinese silks and porcelain.
When, in 1580, Philip II, who was grandson of the Portuguese king D. Manuel I and son of the Portuguese princess D. Isabel, he became Philip I of PortugalMadrid would end up inherit Macauwhich would be the first true Spanish base in Chinese territory.
Throughout these years of expansion, a series of governors, missionaries and merchants provided Madrid with a constant flow of information about the fabulous but still mysterious Chinese Empire.
In many reports, the China was not portrayed as a sleeping dragonbut as vast, rich and vulnerable: a real piñata ready to be caught.
From this strategic vision were born several “interaction” plans with China — high-stakes courtly versions of “kiss, marry, avoid”.In 1588, the Spanish crown merged all these projects in a single and audacious invasion plan — and thus “La Empresa de China” was born.
Although Philip II probably considered the plan at the time, he had other pressing matters on his hands: 1588 was also the fateful year in which the hitherto Invincible Armada The invasion of England catastrophically failed.
It was also the year in which the revolt against Spanish rule in the Netherlands gained strength, with the creation of Dutch Republic.
Essentially, the Company was a mix of Impractical logisticsmissionary zeal and geopolitical fantasy. But what if Spain had actually gone ahead with the plan — and managed to bring it to fruition?
This shows the scenario that had been outlined as ideal.
Nagihuin / Wikipedia
Map of the phases of the “La Empresa de China” plan
- First phase: The Beachhead
A Portuguese-Spanish armada leaves the Philippines. The force, numbering tens of thousands, seizes ports in the Chinese coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian and begins advancing inland. - Second phase: The March to Beijing
In a repetition of the expeditions that had conquered Mexico and Peru, the Iberian conquerors marched north to Beijing, in some cases assisted by the Japanese. They capture the imperial capital and install a puppet regime, perhaps with Emperor Wanli as a figurehead. - Third phase: Conversion
Using strategies used in the Americas, the Spanish use religious conversion and mixed marriages to create a mestizo elite loyal to the Spanish crown. The participation of the Jesuits is crucial: these missionaries are both spies and evangelizers. With his help, Spain pacifies China, which becomes the jewel in the Spanish imperial crown and a strategic platform for future conquests. - Fourth phase: The Great Finale
China provides the soldiers, Spain leads. The powerful Sino-Spanish Empire grows to dominate much of Asia and advances west, across the steppes of Central Asia, until it contacts the Ottomans near the Caspian Sea. After opening a second front in the Ottoman rear, Spanish European forces enter from the west, crushing the Sultan’s power in a global mortal embrace of the Habsburgs.
Global Empire
If Philip II (or his successors) had managed to carry out this plan, a spanish world empire would have circled the planet.
It would have been possible to travel from Spain to the Americas, to the Philippines, China and the former Ottoman territories in the Middle East and the Balkans, passing through several European territories loyal to the Spanish crown, without never set foot on land that were not controlled by the Habsburgs.
Although, reason triumphed over adventurism at the Spanish court. The Company was discarded as impractical — and not just because Spain had other priorities.
China was also not so easy to subdue as the most enthusiastic spy reports suggested at the time. And we’re talking about the country that invented gunpowder…
Thus, Spanish conquest rhetoric was actually more propaganda for missionaries and traders than a literal military plan — and Philip II showed wisdom in not succumbing to imperial arrogance, which would clash head-on with all-too-real restrictions: geographical, logistical, military and financial.
