Why were Spain and Portugal so backwards compared to Northern Europe by 1900?

[Andrelvis]

Noooo. You can perceive differences within Western sphere, forgetting that the difference between the West and the Rest was even much larger.

Not really. If you look at historical GDP per capita, you'll see that Portugal used to be closer to Morocco than to the United States.

 

[Maq]

Russia didn't have much in the way of resources, but it did become quickly centralized and focused their resources on improving their state. Given how important literacy rate is to the success of a nation, no surprise they were able to improve things drastically.

It is often misunderstood what was the original goal of compulsory school attendance: The government-controlled education is the most efficient means of state propaganda. Beside of that, it prepares peasants for compulsory military service. I have no doubts that these were the main goals of Leninist-Stalinist educational campaign.