Colonialism and a high income arrived almost simultaneously in Europe. Prior to the Early Modern Era, the bulk of the world's wealth was concentrated in and around the Indian Ocean trading system, with China one of the biggest outliers. It's not until Europeans manage to obtain and maintain easy access to this system that the patterns of wealth start to shift west.

Like /u/MrMarbles2000 said, Spain and Portugal are the quickest to get into the colonial game: Portugal in the Indian Ocean, spotty areas along the African coast, and Brazil, while Spain focused primarily on its American holdings. Both countries manage to amass a ridiculous amount of wealth, but that's ironically what led to their demise. Spain and Portugal don't exactly have the most fertile land. With so much wealth pouring in, they often sought food resources through trading. More damning was the fact that since they could import whatever they needed, there was no impetus for them to develop their own industry, since they could rely on their neighbors for textiles and weaponry. By the time of the Bourbon reforms and the eventual Latin American independence movements, the revenue stream dried up and Spain and Portugal were left behind in comparison to the British, the French, and eventually the rapidly expanding Germans.

Britain is arguably the biggest success story of the entirety of Western Europe, but as we can still see today, Western Europe generally outpaces all of their former colonies. However, Europe was a bit player in the grand scheme of things prior to the Portuguese starting their exploration efforts in the 1470s. China and India were where it was at.

Source: History teacher, MA in Global/Comparative History student.