Question

Explain why Spain and Britain become successful Empires in the Americas? Focus on how the following 3 elements impacted the country: trade, politics and power, and technology superiority.

Answer 1

Britain has been a constitutional parliamentary monarchy throughout its imperial history and, in its final stages, a democracy. Constitutional systems imply that the rule of law has prevailed over man's rule-law and order are above the whims of the ruler or tyrant or any religious laws and customs. This rule of law gave the foundation of an organized and just society an outstanding foundation. "Just" in the sense that each topic had law-written privileges and duties and that each topic had a definite position in culture.

This also implied that British laws and societal system were generally more humane and healthier than options. It guaranteed fundamental rights— liberty from slavery, liberty from lawlessness, liberty from anarchy, liberty from persecution, liberty from arbitrary detention and extrajudicial punishment; freedom of speech, freedom of trade, freedom of property, liberty of faith and other fundamental rights and liberties. This made trade flourish and economic growth possible.

Taxation was not intended to milk the subjects dry, fill the coffers of the regent, and ensure that no one would become wealthy and thus threaten the status of the despot, but to provide the state with the means to take care of the rulership's essentials.

While the French came to explore America and the Spanish came in search of treasures, the English came for various reasons. Some English went to America to have the opportunity to practice their choice of religion. To take their Christian faith to the Native Americans, some religious individuals went to America. British judges, instead of putting them in British prisons, sent some individuals to America. Businessmen went to America to purchase from the colonists products like tobacco and furs. Farmers went to America to have the opportunity to own land.

In Spain, Britain's intentions were the same as in South America to secure vital raw materials and low-cost food to feed explosive industrialization and urbanization procedures at home. Spain provided 86 percent of the iron ore and 90 percent of the sulfur sold overseas by European countries by the late nineteenth century. Even as late as 1935, the Spanish ore accounted for 30% of the iron ore imports from Britain. Also essential for the growth of the chemical and electricity-based sectors were the minerals of Spain. The supply of these second wave industrial revolution sectors in Europe was dominated by its copper, sulfur, lead and mercury mines.

Another significant cause was foreign impact on the growth of the railway network. Its radial pattern, based on Madrid and its concentrate on mining centers and big agricultural landowners, reflected the interests of the Spanish political elite and foreign mining businesses based in Madrid, rather than the country's need for a comprehensively linked transport network. Even in the late 19th century, importing wheat from the mid-westof America into Barcelona was cheaper than importing it from the agricultural hinterland of Spain in Castile a hundred miles away.