The two colonial empires of Spain and Portugal were prosperous for a while, but why did they end up being short-lived?

Spain and Portugal were the first countries to start overseas colonial plunder in modern European history, and they had huge financial and material resources, but they were just short-lived. The first reason is that these two countries used the wealth they plundered for enjoyment instead of investing it in production or other social fields. Later, capitalist countries such as the United Kingdom used most of the money plundered from overseas for investment in reproduction, making capital snowball like a snowball. However, Portugal and Spain just spent the money as they spent it, without listening to anything. sound.

The second is that these two countries have not ushered in social revolution for a long time, and have always maintained feudal rule, which is very detrimental to social development, especially when the first industrial revolution came, when Capitalist countries have seized opportunities and caught up, but these two countries did not carry out such revolutions and naturally began to lag behind other emerging countries.

In the end, the continuous wars consumed too much power, especially Spain, which continued to participate in competition in European affairs. The War of Spanish Succession seriously consumed Spain's national power.