Early modern Europe emerged from its place on the periphery of the international economy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by conquering the world's oceans. European mariners carved out new sea routes to Africa and Asia and laid claim to continents in the Americas. The tremendous wealth that Spain collected in the Americas made it one of the world’s preeminent economic powers. Other European nations envied Spanish success, but the Protestant Reformation initially created conflicts that prevented them from emulating the Spanish model. Ultimately, though, Protestantism became one of the driving forces that led England to attempt to build its own colonial empire. While its initial efforts failed, England’s attempts to expand into North America would eventually transform it from a marginal political entity into a major world power.