British and Spanish Empire Colonies: Contrasts and Similarities
The founding of British and Spanish Empire Colonies in 16th-18th centuries
As the Spaniards and the Brits both belong to the same continent, Europe, they have so much in common in history in their acquisition of territories outside their environment. These territories were called colonies and formed part of the British and Spanish empires of the Renaissance era. However, as much as there are similarities in their colonialist acquisitions, their mode of operations differ in a number of ways. There seem to be no continent spared during the era of colonization; Africans, Asians, Americans, Australians and Islands were all colonized by Europeans of which both Spain and Britain belong. Below is a somewhat brief look at what these two historic European empires have in common and what distinguishes them from each other in their colonization approach.
Religion is said to be the opium of the people and this featured as a true saying in the colonial era. Spain was one of the predominantly Catholic European countries; its lead in the exploration era and the accompanying of European conquerors, colonists and traders with missionaries played a great role in the colonization process. Catholicism was first introduced to the colonized areas, since the early missionaries were Catholics; protestant European countries like Great Britain joined the train much later. With some of the colonists as missionaries, it was not much of a work to get the territories under the rule of Spain. So it went for Britain when it eventually caught the exploration fever and was accompanied by Protestants. Religion, Christianity, was introduced as a succor to soothe the demoralized colonized people.
As regards the economic motives and implications of these two colonizers, there were some sorts of differences. British colonizers were not much interested in settling in populous, politically and economically developed areas on their arrival, so were they in the establishment of colonial institutions. The policy of the Brits was to explore less populous, economically and politically developed areas and make it into their model after advantageous exploration. This is in contrast with Spanish policies of settling and establishing colonial institutions in areas which were more populous and politically and economically advanced pre colonization.
The long-run effect of Spanish colonization style in areas where they well settled in was dysfunctional markets, a highly stratified society and resultant predatory states. Colonized areas which were not a major settlement of the Spanish colonialists were not spared as well except for being saved from the establishment of the most destructive of colonial institutions. On the other hand, British colonies had a long-run effect of being enabled, post colonization, to have respect for the rule of law, develop competitive markets, and imbibing effective administration. The less populous regions which were not the focus of British colonialists suffered their existing institutions being distorted when the Brits left their shores.
These two colonial masters did or did not enable their colonies to effectively develop after the colonial era and most of these colonies, which are now independent of their colonial masters, have tales of woes to tell or praises to shower on the Europeans that had them colonized.
Bibliography
- Teach Genius By TCi. European Missionaries and the Spread of Christianity, 1500-1750 (online). http://teachergenius.teachtci.com/european-missionaries-and-the-spread-of-christianity-1500-1750/
- Lange, M., Mahoney, J. vom Hau, M. Colonialism and Development: A Comparative Analysis of Spanish and British Colonies. University of Chicago, 2006.
