a rivalry with the Ottoman Caliphate, which had a center of operations at its nearby vassal, the Sultanate of Aceh. In 1593, the governor-general of the Philippines, Luis Pérez Dasmariñas, set out to conquer Cambodia, igniting the Cambodian–Spanish War. Some 120 Spaniards, Japanese, and Filipinos, sailing aboard three junks, launched an expedition to Cambodia. After an altercation between the Spanish expedition members and some Chinese merchants at the port left a few Chinese dead, the Spanish were forced to confront the newly declared king Anacaparan, burning much of his capital while defeating him. In 1599, Malay Muslim merchants defeated and massacred almost the entire contingent of Spanish troops in Cambodia, putting an end to Spanish plans to conquer it. Another expedition, one to conquer Mindanao, was also lacking in success. In 1603, during a Chinese rebellion, Pérez Dasmariñas was beheaded, and his head was mounted in Manila along with those of several other Spanish soldiers. Portugal and the Iberian Union 1580–1640 Despite the fact that during the Iberian Union a certain degree of autonomy and the cultural identity of Portugal was maintained, many historians agree that the dynastic union with Portugal was in fact a Spanish conquest by keeping Portugal and all its overseas territories as part of the Spanish colonial empire under the sovereignty of Philip II of Spain and his successors after the Spanish victory in the War of Portuguese Succession. In 1580, King Philip saw the opportunity to strengthen his position in Iberia when the last member of the Portuguese royal family, Cardinal Henry of Portugal, died. Philip asserted his claim to the Portuguese throne and in June sent the Duke of Alba with an army to Lisbon to assure his succession. Philip famously remarked upon his acquisition of the Portuguese throne: "I inherited, I bought, I conquered," a variation on Julius Caesar and Veni, Vidi, Vici. Spanish forces led by Admiral Álvaro de Bazán captured the Azores Islands in 1583, completing the incorporation of Portugal into the Spanish Empire. Thus, Philip added to his possessions a vast colonial empire in Africa, Brazil, and the East Indies, seeing a flood of new revenues coming to the Habsburg crown; and the success of colonization all around his empire improved his financial position, enabling him to show greater aggression towards his enemies. The English Armada of 1589 failed to liberate Portugal. Philip established the Council of Portugal, on the