>>50000185>The Spanish Empire happened because they had to catch up with Portugal after years of infighting and tackling feudalism.Only in some regards. In other aspects, it was far more ambitious.
>I don't get why Spain does do shit about the unity of their state.Easier said than done. It's what happens when a country doesn't know if it wants to be centralised or decentralised, but Spain tries to be both. Also, education is a very powerful tool.
>What do they have a monarchy for? If not for uniting the people behind one flag what's their monarchy usefull for?Some more things like international representation and prestige, but in a country where even the most basic national symbols are politicised to the extreme, having a king only gets you this far.
>Aren't there Catalunian or Basque nobles to marrie with?Nobiliary tradition mught as well be dead as a whole. Now things depend on the 'properly shaped' will of the people (a.k.a. what the oligarchs want).
>Also Galicia could switch over to Portugal. Their language is the same anyway.Galician looks like a middle ground between Spanish and Portuguese to me, and giving up on clay, even run down, post industrial clay, is not what countries do.
>>50000549Castille also had a heavy focus on the monarchy and kept most nobles in check, but I guess Portugal did it earlier and better. It's mostly Aragon where the nobles and part of the bourgeoisie wrestled a significant amount of power from the king, as its territories were much more decentralised by nature.
And forgot to mention, Castille suffered from some nasty civil wars during the late Middle Ages.
>>50000740Our economies are interconnected to a certain degree anyway. Spain contributed in the Greek bailout too, despite the ongoing economic malaise.
