Compare and Contrast 2007 Ap History

410 Words2 Pages
Between 1450 and 1800 both the Ottoman and Spanish empires soared to great heights. Each had impressive resumes with the Ottomans taking the impenetrable Constantinople and the Spaniards discovering the Americas. But while the Spaniards were more focused on building a colonial empire based upon religion in the Americas, the Ottomans were looking to build an empire through brute force that stretched across the continent of Europe worthy to be called the “Third Rome”. When Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453 they solidified themselves as a great power and granted their empire major prestige and influence. From there on they began to expand southward into Africa and farther west into Europe. When the Spaniards discovered America they opened up an entire new world to conquer. Explorers from all over began traveling to claim part of it for their country. But the Spanish were already ahead, by using their far superior weapons they quickly conquered the Aztecs and Inca empires and therefore controlling them and their peoples. A major difference between these empires was the way they controlled their newly acquired territories. The Spanish preferred the use of encomiendas. They would give a colonist in America a piece of land and control of everything on it including the natives. The rulers or encomenderos often abused this system and used the natives as their slaves. The natives were raised as slaves and often worked to death in the many established plantations and mines. The Spanish not only used the natives as slaves but also as a way to spread their religion, Catholic Christianity, throughout the new world. Spanish missionaries were sent over to to the Americas to help this process. The Ottomans in turn used the Devshirme System, which was basically a tax. The catch was that the tax was their male children. This tax was imposed on all non-muslim families
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