>>17522538Spain was always chronically underperforming European backwater. They've made an empire, but they failed to use it to sufficiently beef up the metropoly. They've built an armada, but it got wrecked by the Brits. Every time they tried into intra-European power plays they've been quickly bonked on the nose by practically everyone, including their own "allies", the French. They've invented the novel, but their overall literary corpus is paltry and even their own South American colonies outshone them. They have terrific folk music, but they never elevated it to a proper high-culture musical tradition. They built some of the oldest universities in Europe, and yet they became almost irrelevant past 18th century. Spain is nice, but it's always manana.
