Ottoman vs Spanish Empires Essay Example

The Ottoman Empire, or Turks, were the longest-lasting remnents of the Mongol Empire; the Spanish Empire re-asserted itself after the Muslim Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula and became a world power through the Age of Exploration. From 1450 to 1800, both the Ottoman and Spanish Empires experienced political expanision in the process of empire building, but unlike the Spanish, the Ottomans experienced diminshing growth and stagnation during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries after amassing a militaristic gvernment. Reasons for building an empire differed in some aspects—both the Ottomans and Spanish expanded to go forth and spread the word of their god, but the Spanish falsely claimed this and were only in it for the gold. Gold was the main reason why many explorers were searching for alternate, quicker ways to reach China and Southeast Asia, where Europe received most of the spices, goods, and cloths from. From this search, they discovered a new continent (after financing Columbus’ 1492 expedition in an effort to get more goods quicker, but it was Vespucci that realized that it was indeed a new land) in the process. They had natives mine gold while they took slaves and goods back to prove how mighty their Empire was. The Ottomans wanted a land empire, but instead of searching across the ocean, they conquered neighboring lands. In 1453, they captured Constantinople and caused the fall of the Byzantine Empire and made the city their captial, this because the city had great wealth and power. Both empires had different religions, which affected how they ruled. Willing Spanish explorers were sent to the New World, where they enslaved the native peoples and converted them to Christianity. The Ottomans were Muslim, but allowed Christian and Jewish people small freedoms, treating them as second-class citizens. They would take Christian boys from lands they had conquered and placed them in the Janissary system that raised them Muslim and they went on to have