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Spanish and Ottoman Empires

Decent Essays

Topic: Spanish and Ottoman Empires Beginning from when Sargon I of Akkad built the worlds first empire, many empires have since then been established and now hold a name that are both as eminent and momentous. Two of these such empire are the Spanish and the Ottoman Empires, which began to establish and expand around the time of 1450-1800. Although separate and located in different parts of the world, the Ottoman and Spanish Empires share many similarities, as well as many differences in their empire building process. The Ottoman and the Spanish Empire were politically similar in their governing system, but different in the way that they distributed their policies. The Ottoman Empire, unlike the Spanish, had an empire based …show more content…

The reason for that is because of their location, as they had control of trade routes between Asia and Europe. The Spanish, however, found difficulty in commerce and trade along land because the Ottoman Empire would block trade routes from Spain and force Spain to expand by sea and find different routes and ways of commerce and trade. The Spanish had to keep sending explorers to find different lands and happened upon the Americas. They used the newfound land to plant cash crops such as tobacco, coffee, and cotton. They also found precious metals such as gold and silver. Soon, they dominated overseas and trading. The Spanish Empire was primarily sea-based. They possessed advanced ships and navigational tools that allowed them to discover new continents and claim them as their own. They began to colonize for the economy to run and relied heavily on imports from those colonies. Contrary to the Spanish, the Ottoman Empire was a land based empire that dominated the Middle East up to Eastern Europe. The economy of the Ottoman Empire was dependent on subjugating new lands and exploiting them for their value. Despite these many differences, both empires took part during this period in the developing and increasing African slave trade. In conclusion, the years 1450-1800 saw many developments for the Ottoman and Spanish Empire. There were many similarities as well as differences socially, politically, and economically

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