Europen Imperialism essays

Europen Imperialism essays In order to explain the differences between the maritime kingdoms of Europe and the land based empires of Eurasia we have to understand the similarities first. What these two groups had in common was that they were both looking to expand their nations. This is where the differences come in as well. While the land based empires, Ottoman, Safuid, Mughal, Russian, and the Chinese were spreading their control in all directions over land, the smaller European kingdoms of France, England, Holland, Spain and Portugal had no where to expand except out to sea. The reason that the kingdoms could only expand into the sea was simply because of population size. The Chinese empire alone had over 200 million people under its control. All together Holland, France, England, Spain, and Portugal, hardly had 100 million people under rule. Even if their total population was close to the Chinese, there was five kings who would have to share in the decision making process, whereas the Chinese had one emperor who made choices. It would be very hard for the five European kingdoms to band together and try to take on any of the western empires. So the only choice that was left for them was to compete with each other and expand into the sea. Now between 1500 and 1750 European overseas colonization grew tremendously because there were five nations competing with one another. There was such a rush for the expansion of each nation because they each thought if we dont get that land one of our enemies will. The reason the land was seen as valuable was because more land meant more available farm land and more places to gather natural resources. The more natural resources they could gather the more money they had. The more money they had the more they could spend on oversea adventures which would eventually yield more land and more resources which again lead to more money. The kings needed money because each nation was at war with one another. The kin...