Are we repeating the same mistakes which led to the Fall of the first global Superpower; the Spanish Empire?

Taking a walk down memory lane or for those who don’t know that Spain was the first global Superpower with gold and silver flowing in from its American colonies, the Hapsburg dynasty became the dominant power in Europe.

It controlled rich parts of Italy through Naples and Milan, and Central Europe from the Netherlands through the Holy Roman Empire to Austria. In the 16th century it added the far distant Philippine islands to its empire. The Hapsburgs held off the Ottoman Turks, whose resurgent wave of Islamic conquest in the 16th century swept across the Balkans and nearly captured Vienna.

The Hapsburgs went into decline in the 17th century, and while any such momentous event has many causes, for our purposes the focus will be on the economic collapse of Spain, which not only sapped the empire of strength but served to build up the power of its rivals. - financialpolicycouncil