This isn't my area of expertise, so I would appreciate some insight? I know about the colonial independence struggles, but it seems to me that the decline of it happened well before that, and I'd like to know what precipitated that.
They invested all their gold into pretty buildings and wars instead of building up their own production, getting an economy as diverse as the one of Russia.
The Eternal Frog also came around to screw up any chances to get things going with Austria.
>>975676
So, they just sort of sat on their empire instead of using it to get ahead of the other European powers?
>>975665
The Dutch Rebelling caused a lot of their colonies to rebel and they also blew far too much money in that war. They lost a war with the French who took a lot of their colonies too. Their empire was too outstretched to maintain on the limited funds that they had. France and UK overtook them.
>>975681
The Spanish Empire didn't die with a bang, it died in a whimper.
>>975690
>Died with a cousin fucking its cousin
Fixed that for you.
>>975683
Is there any way they could have stopped it?
>>975665
It probably could have survived, albeit inefficiently, if it hadn't been for Fernando VII and the French invasion. While the colonies were certainly going to demand more freedoms, Spain could easily have become more of a commonwealth. But instead Fernando went and crushed all the liberal reforms. The French invasion just caused the instability needed for the whole thing to fall apart.
>>975665
Combination of a different imperial setup that was based on extreme exploitation at the cost of long-term investment, and spunking their wads fighting to rule Europe instead of building modern ships to keep those Island Wogs at bay.
That is what happens to empires.
The elite get rich for a while, then eventually people fight back.
I still can't fully believe there are people who think that an empire collapsing is the problem, not the empire existing in the first place.
Failure to industrialize on time (compared to France, Germany, UK, etc) because they were trying to hold onto their empire
Spain paved the way for global economics and in so doing showed everyone what not to do.
We could have had a peaceful world dominated by Spain, but instead the Eternal Anglo and the French traitors attacked us. Well, they and also every other great power.
>>975665
Every king since Carlos III was a severe idiot
>>978199
Every king [s]since Carlos III[/s] was a severe idiot
All of the above are wrong.
The spanish born in america couldn't marry the spanish born in spain so they end up feeling more american than spanish, they couldn't get in positions of power.
When the americans rebel against the british, they wanted the same.
There was a wise man called Conde de Aranda that wanted to make 5 kingdoms out of the spanish colonies and make the king of spain the emperor.
This would've stop the rich criollos to rebel against the metropolis as they would be in control of the new kingdoms.
So spain loose most of the colonies in the independence wars and then Napoleon rekt Spain hard, the brits that were sent to the peninsula to fight him end up destroying most of the factories.
We lost everything just before the industrial revolution so when it came we couldn't adapt unlike the rest.
>>975665
The Real Question is how did Spanish Identity and Spain as a Nation State become so powerful so quickly?
>>976669
No, we lost the empire before that.
>>978241
Women use to breed back then.
>>976800
This.
No one knew virtually anything about economics back then. Someone had to fuck it up first.
>>978305
I thought so too.
>>975787
this
>>975691
Did the empire just quietly dissolve? I never heard of bloody independence wars in the Spanish colonies, contrary to the British and French
>>975787
This.
Empires are historically significant but historical significance doesn't mean good.
>>979795
It ended when a storm sunk the massive fleet they spent all their American wealth on.
>>979795
No. The Empire had a shit ton of bloodshed, with men like Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín leading huge revolutions.
The Spanish squandered their treasure, empire and prestige in the 30 years war. They also failed to diversify Spain and they ran their empire as little more than slave colonies when they should have been trying to form cohesive civil equal societies.
