Deck 14: E: Political Transformations Empires and Encounters 1450-1750

Question 1

Comparative Analysis: Compare and contrast the creation of the Russian and Western European empires during the early modern period.

Answer 1

•The Russian Empire was comparable to the empires of Western Europe in broad terms,including conquest,settlement,exploitation,conversion,and feelings of superiority.
•The Russian and Western European empires were also comparable in that the wealth generated by their empires transformed the imperial homelands.
•However,the Western European empires were markedly different from the Russian Empire in a number of ways,including the initiation of the European empires by maritime expansion,their conquest of territories that lay an ocean away from the imperial heartland rather than adjacent to it,their creation of a new Atlantic zone of interaction,and their role in setting in motion the greatest biological exchange to that point in human history.

Question 2

Personal Reflection: How would you place Europe's American empires in context with other contemporary empires?

Answer 2

•Recognition that the European empires were both different from and more significant than the others
•Recognition that the other empires,like Europe's American empires,were centers of vitality that drove significant interactions between culturally different peoples and shaped the course of world history
•A reasoned conclusion that places the European empires in context

Question 3

Comparative Analysis: Compare and contrast the long-term impact of the Mongol Empire with that of Europe's American empires on the course of world history.

Answer 3

•The Mongol Empire and Western European empires in the Americas facilitated the spread of both crops and technologies.
•Both the Mongols and the Europeans overthrew well-established civilizations in the creation of their empires.
•Both extracted large amounts of resources from their conquests.
•Both relied in part on their dominance of major trade routes for their success.
•Both unwittingly facilitated the spread of destructive epidemic diseases.
•In terms of contrast,only the Western European empires created entirely new global networks.
•They relied heavily on technological advantages for their success.
•Europe conquered territories an ocean away from the imperial heartland.

Question 4

Discuss the various motives for empire in Western Europe,Russia,and Asia.