I am less familiar with the history of Russia but I at least know that Russia started to change with Peter the Great who did extensive reforms but still most of Russia was under developped (only St Petersburg could really compete with other european cities), and there was a cultural and economic gap between Russia and other European nations.
Spain had a massive colonial empire, military, population
El siglo de oro (the golden age) lasted 150 years, 1492 to 1650, Spain despite having still a big colonial empire was actually a kind of vassal state during the 18th century, first of the Autrichian dynasty of Habsburg and then the French dynasty of Bourbon. The War for the Spanish Succession ended with the relegation of Spain, now under Bourbon rule, to the status of a second-rate power with a reduced influence in European affairs. The age of enlightment did not reached Spain until mid-18th century. The economic decline started as early as 1557 and they declared bankruptcy at least 4 times from 1550 to 1600.
Any battle fought by Spain against other European nations were lost (Pyrenean treaty defining the modern French-Spanish border, many territories lost such as Roussillon, Florida, Netherlands, etc)
their population was pretty rich and literate (for the times).
The Spanish society was actually really inegalitarian (even for that period's standards) with a strong clergy owning everything, so you are here again totally wrong.
That's sad that Spain did not learn that much from their Muslim predecessors in culture, tolerance and science advances...
China was weak compared to the European countries - China entered the dark ages in the 1400s and didn't really come from them until the 1900s.
Again wrong, China wasnt lucky to find America which could have boosted the Chinese economy (certainly because of Pacific Ocean distances. As even their navy was more advanced compared to Europeans, if you ever heard of the admiral Zheng He who already almost one century before big European explorations started great expeditionary voyages with a massive fleet).
But even when the Ming dynasty collapsed, the next Qing dynasty for a time saved China and started great conquests, it is during the Qing dynasty (from 1600 to 1900) that China had its biggest territorial extent, and almost every Asian states were vassals of the Chinese Emperor.
So China faced a decline only when the Opium wars began (19th century), and that Europe benefited technical and military advances from the first industrial revolution, as most of the techonology acquired during the REnaissance was actually imported from China (paper/printing, artillery, military tactics, philosophy/culture)
Edited 3/30/2015 16:13:59
