how did spain's of central of mexico and the andes shape european competition? how did the protestant reformation affect this competition?

Spain turned out to be the most important country when it came to the dispute between the Catholic Church, and the new Protestant Church. In Europe, the Protestants were gaining more and more followers, even becoming dominant in several countries, thus heavily damaging the Catholic Church and its power. Spain though was a country that didn't allowed the Protestant movement to spread on its territory, and not just that, but it managed to gain the Catholic Church millions of new followers, thus bringing back lot of its power. This was accomplished by the conquests of Central and South America, where the Spanish were quick to spread out the Catholicism, be it by willing accepting it or being forced, the majority of the natives accepted it, thus increasing the zone of influence of the Catholic Church.