Why did Britain, France, and Germany remain important powers while Portugal, Spain, Belgium...

Why did Britain, France, and Germany remain important powers while Portugal, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands became irrelevant nothing countries? Italy is sort of in-between.

They're big

>Portugal, Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands
They all got cucked to oblivion by Napoopan

Britain and France were two of the major "winners" of World War II, and since their empires were still large after the war they were granted seats on the UN Security Council. This brought them closer to the United States, which overtook them as the leading power of the world.

Belgium didn't exist in Napoopans time

In the more modern era places like Britain and France had huge empires, economies and global influence. Spain was left behind after Napoelon and losing its empire and the industrial revolution occurring in places like Britain and Germany emphasised that even more. Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal had empires but weren't as big, notable and didn't have the economy.

Portugal is unable to compete culturally and economically with the other continental powers. Same can be said of the rest. Italy is only relevant because it boasts a richer, more ancient history that people read and learn about daily.

To be more in-depth: Portugal's major decline began when Napoleon invaded and it continued further when Brazil gained independence. Due to both ineptitude and bad luck Portugal didn't modernize fast enough and it was quickly left behind by the bigger giants. There was also the politically unstable and economically weak Portuguese Republic that devolved into a dictatorship under Salazar.

>Italy is sort of in-between.
LOL

Portuguese decline began in the 16th century when Spanish Habsburgs inherited the kingdom. Portugal became part of spain and lost a bunch of shit to the dutch (and the english as well i think) from the 80 years war. The surge of indian money was also spent on religious buildings, and when the monopoly was lost portugal had nothing else.
There's also the 1755 earthquake that destroyed the capital. The city was rebuilt, but it still fucked the country further.
The napoleonic wars were the final nail in the coffin, because they also led to the independence of brazil.

>Britain
>remain important powers

HAHAHAHAHA


>Germany
European Union(cheap Eastern European workerforce)

>France
African Empire + Using Germany as a proxy for its trade

I think the decline of Spain was ironically because of its colonial empire. The country relied too heavily on the american gold since the conquest of Mexico and Peru so once they lost their empire they basically had nothing to support their economy.

The Netherlands and Spain aren't that irrelevant, and basically because they had their empires in different times.

Lacking ressources for proper industrialisation (not Belgium though) and a smaller population base. The difference in population is also what made France lose power to Germany in the second half of the 19th century

What have those countries done of importance in the past 50 years?

The decline of Spain was due to the napoleonic invasion that razed the whole country, the independence of the colonies (thanks to England) and the political instability caused by the liberals and the retarded king, Fernando VII, that at his death, by proclaiming his daughter the heir instead of his brother basically divided the country and provoked like 3 or 4 civil wars only in the 19th century, and that instability remained practically until the end of the last civil war.

Ok, can we stop pretending Belgium is a real country now?

Ebin

t. Pierre LeFrog

>Portugal became part of spain and lost a bunch of shit to the dutch (and the english as well i think) from the 80 years war.

They own faulth for colaborating with the eternal germanic.

Also, Portugal is Spain just has Cataluña is Spain. And all of the Hispanic America is Spain too.

small population didnt and still dont translate well to modern times.

If the Netherlands had retained Belgium and Luxembourg, would it still be an important power today?

Portugal has managed to reivent itself in south america and africa. True decline began after the peninsular wars, it left a huge gap to other central european countries thanks to politcal turmoill, financial problems, lack of governament authority... this were things that spiralled and got worst after ww1 like you can see in other countries
Salazar managed to grab the country, put it on right track, but after he died Portugal got caught in the middle of the cold war and orphan against the likes of the USSR and Kissinger, now it´s a socialist country, condemned to perputal mediocraty

>Salazar wasted his entire life trying to fix Portugal and restore the Empire for nothing