Why Spain and Portugal Decline

In the early 17th century, Britain became the most powerful empire in the world by defeating Spanish Invincible Armada in 1588, which also marked Spain and Portugal’s position were replaced for ever since then. I think the problems in many aspects such as politics and economy account for the decline of the two countries.

Politically speaking, Spain and Portugal were still under feudal system while Britain had already entered the new era of constitutional monarchy. To gain wealth from other lands, groups of navigators on voyage were sent by the royal families and all the expenses were also supported by the rulers. Accordingly, all the wealth from overseas belonged to the royal families. The two countries became insanely rich because their “troops” raided large wealth form colonized land. The wealth was lavishly spent by the rulers since not too many efforts had been made. On the contrary, Britain’s expansion of overseas land first came from the organization of the society rather than the royal family. The wealth they got was carefully cherished. With money fast running out, Spain and Portugal must went to the doom of decline.

The backward economical systems in Spain and Portugal were the root cause for their decline. Though they had accumulated wealth in great amount, the economical development still remained in a traditional way. It was still handicraft industry across the two countries. The wealth was mostly spent on wars or religious stuff. Spain was involved in numerous wars with other European countries while Portugal poured too much money into their religious business. They didn’t develop mass-production industry as Britain did with the wealth. What they did were making profits by transporting the products from other European countries to colonies. The rapid development of industry made England the first capitalized country, which was also the most import way to secure its most powerful position in the world. The unreasonable usage of their wealth finally made Spain and Portugal lose the title of two biggest powers.

The decline of the two countries also resulted from bunches of social problems. The most severe problem happened between the rulers and the common people. The wealth from colonies only made the royal families the richest people in the world, but their people were still impoverished. In Portugal, the parents only dreamed that they could send their children to the church so that they wouldn’t be starved to death. What made the situation worse was that the rulers still levied high tax on the people. They didn’t strive to make the people live a better life but exploiting them as much as they could. Complaints and anger were everywhere in the countries. Technically speaking, it was the royal family who became the richest countries in the world, not the whole country. So the decline of Spain and Portugal was the inevitable process with the development of other countries.

Besides the problems resided internally, the ways they dealt with their colonial land also facilitated their decline. Both of the two countries were not large either in territory or in population, but they had vast colonial land overseas especially Spain. Their colonies were scattered all over the world, so how to govern the colonies properly became one of the biggest concerns for them. Their lands were eventually taken away by other countries since they couldn’t send enough hands to guard their wealth. The internal conflicts and external threaten from other countries all lead to the decline of Spain and Portugal.