What similarities did France, Spain, England, and the Holy Roman Empire share…?
The similarities are all noted at the link. The Holy Roman Empire does not belong in the list, because it was at the time a loose confederation of nations (loose confederation means ‘weak central government’); whose many members acted as if they were independent states. Eg., Venice, Austria, Bavaria, and Switzerland all acted independently. Some areas of the HRE were also held by Spain. If you ignored the HRE completely in your studies of this time period, it would have neglible effect. http://en.wikipedia.
