Spain or England? Why?

Question

Who was "smarter" in dealing with their colonies?
Spain or England?
Why?

Answer 1

England, easy.

It's an opinion question, but when you look at labor management and motivation, it's easily recognizable that England knew what it was doing. Besides if it didn't, why don't we speak Spanish in America today as the #1 language?

England used Virtual Representation for its colonies in Parliament. Until revolution, this worked excellently since the colonies didn't have any homeland concerns besides ensuring the reliability of their markets. Also, this deferred the whole slavery question which was answered following the Revolution. Slavery was illegalized in the BE right before the turn of the century (1793 if I remember correctly).

Spain used religion as a primary motivator for why it should colonize. This worked well in the New World until Britain, France, and Holland disputed the line of Demarcation. The spreading of the Catholic faith used the church's credibility, but following the 30 Year's War, the church lost most of its religious whip. So now emigrants included Irish and German indentured servants who were either tricked or persuaded into leaving for a better life.

I'm assuming we're focusing just upon the western hemisphere here, but just for kicks, Australia, South Africa, and India all had white labor sources that did not depend upon "***** labor." The climate in these places was more intense than that of the tropical Carribbean and these places had more land to motivate entrepreneurial spirit. Nevertheless, Europeans proved they could work in harsh environments just as much as Africans WHILE maintaining a sense of community instead of going out and striking it on their own.

Still, this is about England v. Spain. Not the history of slavery.

Spain treated its resources as extinguishable resources, treating them like gold mines through military and religious institution. England though, viewed its colonies as land developments which would bring wealth through their OWN land and wealth. Their colonies were provided with a constant civilian input from Europe and as the colonies became more and more self-sufficient, they began to ship more and more raw materials and (much later) finished goods.

Answer 2

Spain murdered the indigenous peoples in their colonies and stole their treasures. They made few investments. England built up but also exploited their colonies with Mercantilism. Most rebelled (such as America against England and North and South America against Spain).

By 1898 countries with Spanish ties included only Cuba and the Philippines, and these were lost very quickly. England claimed Canada, India, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, some Northern and Central African states, and several small South American states. England's overseas empire was dismantled after WWI and WWII. England was smarter.

Answer 3

What you do is list the things that England and Spain did well with their colonies, and then list the things that they did wrong. After this you can say neither was better because they both did things that were good and bad. Use what you covered in class.

Answer 4

England. Spanish lost most of there colonies

Answer 5

England, by far. England still has some left. Spain lost them all. HOWEVER, they were both very barbaric. But the Spaniards were worse. They comminted genocide in several Caribbean islands were there are absolutely no indians left.

Answer 6

England coz they knew that they will not stay for ever so they made the most of it by making money business etc...

Answer 7

oh i thought who has hotter chicks, spain..

Answer 8

vomitting