re: #22 Mostly sane, most of the time.

Spain went to the New World and brought back boatloads of gold.

England beat them with a few blueprints for the Industrial Revolution.

Great Britain’s population in 1800 is 10.8 million, India’s was estimated at 200 million.

(I have nothing to say about military success.)

Culture plays a role no doubt. But over the years many nations have built themselves into successful economic and military powers, and they didn’t all have exactly the same cultural values.

As for India, they were subdued by British military might, so their huge population didn’t help much at the time. Not that the yoke of colonialism has been lifted, they’ve advanced quite impressively given where they came from a short time back.