Spanish & Russian Empires

The age of exploration, a period of expansion for many Eurasian empires occured between 1450 and 1800. During this period both the Spanish and thep Russian empires were able to advance economically from their connections with societies westward. Both empires used some form of a labor system in order to support their social structures, despite the fact that where the laborers originated was different within the two empires. From a political standpoint, both empires were run under an autocratic government. This period was extremely crtical to the development of both the Spanish and Russian empires.

Both the Spanish and Russian empires were goeverned by an autocratic body of government. The Russian empire was ruled by a czar, while the title of the head of Spain is a king. The set up of the government of the Spanish empire was probably was developed by the catholic church, while the Russians probably modeled their government after ideas borrowed from the west. From a pollitical standpoint the major difference between the empires was that the Spanish was a maritime empire while the Russian were a landbased empire.

While the Spanish focused primarily on expanding overseas, the Russians felt it was better to expandm without traveling overseas. Since the Spanish also controlled land overseas they developed a system known as viceroyalty, where a govenor was put in place to oversee the control of the Spanish colonies in the new world. The Spanish and Russian empires both developed a similar social structure. At the bottom of social structure within both empires were the labor workers. Since both economies flourished based on agricultural successes, both societies required a group of people to work the lands.

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The Spanish relied primarily on forced laborers from outside of their colonies, typically consisting of slaves from Africa and the native Americans. Unlike the Spanish, the Russians looked towards locals to take part in a form of serfdom. Both the Spanish and Russian empires looked westward for ways to move foreward. The Spanish focused on economical advancements while the Russian empire focused mainly on social aspects. The Russians focused on social aspects because they felt that thier submission to the mongols had put them at a severe disadvantage to the europeans. The Russians borrowed estern ideas such as those used in art, architecture, and justice. The Spanish and Russian empires were both agricullturally based. The Spanish was an empire that not only developed domestic trade but also traded overseas. The Spanish basically single-handedly brought the new world into the worldwide economy. The Spanish were at the forefront of the triangle trade which pumped alot of money into the European economy. The Columbian Exchange brought a lot of new cash and staple crops into Europe such as potatoes and tobacco. The Russian empire however focused on developing a local economy.

The local peasentry was forced into serfdom. The strict enforcement of serfdom was put in place to work the land that supports Russian economy. The age of exploration, from 1450 to 1800 was a critical point in the development of many of the Eurasian empires. Despite being seperated by vast expanses of geographical features, ideas were able to blend profusely within seperate cultures. Clearly no amount of division can stop the bridge between the building of two different empires. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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