Spain Was Relegated to Second Class Status in the 1600s

Spain was relegated to second class status in the 1600s in part because it

A) was the site of much fighting during the Thirty Years' War.
B) failed to grow its economy.
C) held to a rigid Catholicism.
D) hoarded the silver extracted from its South American mines.
E) failed to make an attempt to defend the Mediterranean from a Turkish advance.