Compare And Contrast The British French And Spanish Empires

Similarities and Differences Between the Main Colonial Powers Almost immediately after the New World was discovered, countries all around the world began financing voyages to the newly discovered land for reasons such as exploitation, settlement and simple curiosity. Before the American Revolution, there were three main countries that dominated the colonization of America: France, Spain, and England. All of these countries did things similarly and differently that eventually led to the English colonists having control over the country. Some of these similarities included the rigidity of the colonies’ central government and the diversity of their economies. Some of the differences include the population growth within each country’s colonies and each country’s relations with the Native Americans.

The motives of the French,Dutch and Spanish empires had a lot of similarities when they where coming over to the New World. They all revolved around the same concepts power money, and spreading their dominant faith. They did vary quite a bit when it came time to set up colonies in the New World. Spain was convinced that Catholicism was far superior to any other religion.

During the 17th century, many nations started settling all throughout North America. Spanish conquistadors claimed much of the Southwest, while England began to occupy the Northeast. The Spanish and English colonies varied in terms of the impact of religion and control of the economy.

The imperial goals of the British, French, and Spanish in North America between 1580 and 1763 were similar in that all three European states sought to capture the wealth and commerce offered by the New World and in that they all used imperialism as a means of increasing the authority, territory, and influence of their state; however, the British, French, and Spanish imperialistic goals differed in that Britain's religious goals were those regarding asylum, while the French and Spanish sought to gain converts; moreover, the relationships the British, French, and Spanish wanted to form with the natives differed drastically. These goals continued to be a main focus of the British, French, and Spanish imperial efforts from 1580 to 1763. All three European powers sought to capture the wealth and commerce of the New World--namely, they sought to take advantage of the abundance of raw materials and the market for trade offered by North America--which caused economic and political tensions between the three states; therefore, the goal of capturing the wealth offered by the New World was the most significant goal and forged the relationships and tensions between the British, French, and Spanish in both North America and Europe.

During the 15th through 17th centuries, advancements in technology and the desire for new resources spurred the exploration of the New World for both Spain and England. Spain's interest in exploration soon surpassed the rest of the countries in the Old World and the nation began to claim the majority of territory in Central and South America. Spain sent conquistadores to assert their dominance in the New World through violent conquest which resulted in difficult relations with native populations. Although the English did not settle in North America until the early 17th century, well past the period of the Spanish conquest, their methods of colonization were more successful in the long term. The English were able to find economic success

British empire was in control of Canada, “a deep and complex transformation.” (Calloway, 112) British empire envision North America with field of action while the French spent the next two decade revenging on their loss with the Seven Years’ War and Treaty of Paris. Even though the French did not succeed in North America, eventually they migrated towards large swaths of Canada, The Great Lakes, and Mississippi Valley using their social systems and culture to survive. “The Interior French”, (Calloway, 123) were French-Canadian who lived beyond the Great Lakes country. They had formed an alliance within the Indians and having a good reputation with dealing goods. Louisiana went to Spain eventually, a few French migrated to Louisiana as a Peace of Paris. More settlers were French in Louisiana during the Spanish era instead of the French. Louisiana changes hand in Paris a couple times in 1763.

The Spanish for example, had a military fort in St, Augustine, Florida and carried on missionary activities as far north as Port Royal, South Carolina. Most of their colonization was either religion or military based as they planned to build missions to benefit the peaceful Native Americans and military outposts to deal with the hostile ones. The Spanish planed to use missions to grow their empire within the borders of America. The British on the other hand wished at first exploit the natives, fish and search for passage to the pacific. These were the ideas of Humphrey Gilbert. Gilbert makes a few voyages to America and nothing stays but after Gilbert dies, Sir Walter Raleigh asks to charter a new colony. He establishes the colonies Roanoke and Virginia and he eventually leaves, but in 1607 a joint stock company, the Virginia Company of London founds Jamestown. Eventually John Smith takes over Jamestown John Smith took over as a much more affective ruler. He then maps the colony, explores it and gets corn from the Indians so that the colonists can survive. The French however, did not colonize as much as the British did, and did not wish to harshly change the Native Americans way of life like the Spanish. In the early years, the French had one colony, New France but in 1682 the

By the early 1700’s Europeans began to migrate over to America in order to form their own colonies. The causes for colonization in America was for political, religious, and economic freedom. During this time Europeans found their way over to the Chesapeake and New England regions. America was a developing country at this time, it had no real unified order, nor any actual power and yet why would the Europeans choose to colonize here?

It had a comic book quality about it: two elderly men drunk and quarreling about Pershing (who Valerian had actually seen), neither one mentioning then or ever the subject of exile or advanced years which was what they had in common. Both felt as though they had been run out of their homes. Robert Michelin expelled from Algeria; Valerian Street voluntarily exiled from Philadelphia.

The English and France were rivals in North America because France controlled Canada. The French claimed the Mississippi Valley and wanted to expand economic influences among the Native Americans from the east to the west. England controlled the eastern coast of North America. They wanted to expand colonial settlements further to the west. French policy in America was sent to only limited numbers of colonists to be in the trade. The English policy was to send large amounts of numbers colonists as settlers to build new towns and cities. As a result, most Native American tribes allied themselves with the French and against the British Empire and its American colonists. The competition between France and Britain for expanding

When thinking of the French and Spanish, during the Age of Exploration, what do you think of? Do you briefly remember learning about the two parties, or do you remember the specific details? When asked to answer those questions, one could answer in a positive or negative light. One could also determine that the French and Spanish had similarities, as well as differences, depending on the attributes. Within the New World, during the Age of Exploration, the Spanish were truly similar to the French when pinpointing their economic aspects, but were also unquestionably different when considering their religious standpoints.

North America, the Caribbean Islands, and South America were just a few of the areas in which the French founded colonies. Like the Spaniards, the French began to occupy large amounts of the western hemisphere. The French begun colonizing the new world for money and access to the Pacific Ocean, but as they colonized more land they started using the colonies to export fish, furs, and sugars. (French Colonization of the Americas).

The Spanish empire had a major foothold in present day Florida from 1513 threw 1586 and viewed the lands to the north as a logical extension of their Caribbean empire. St. Augustine helped reduce the danger from French privateers and eradicated the French threat to Spain’s claim to the area. Juan Pounce de Leon was the First European explore and first Spanish explore to find Florid and claimed this new territory for his country naming it La Florida, meaning Land of Flowers. “In 1521, on his second expedition to Florida, they landed on the southwest coast of Florida, with the intention of founding a colony, but he was fatally wounded in an Indian attack soon after his arrival.”

there were many people that were very disappointed to find riches in the new world so then they started to think about going to florida so they thought about making settlements and wanted to get territoral claims. and this would benefit the spanish because it would help protect to spanish ships.

During the 1600’s the English decided to have people colonize in the Americas for the