Payton Menges
Period 4 While both the Spanish and Russians used military force to expand their empires, the
Spanish relied much more heavily on religion to consolidate and centralize their control over newly conquered areas. The Spanish empire building­process was focused in the Americas. While the Russian empire­building occurred primarily within the Eurasian landmass. The Spanish conquistadors conquered native people and forced them into subservience. The Spanish designated territorial boundaries, thus forming new countries, and appointed themselves rulers over them. While in power they started huge plantations and mines from which a majority of the profits either went into their own pockets or back home to Spain. The Russians brought political unity to Siberia and introduced them to the Russian
Orthodox faith. In order to achieve such rapid expansion the Russians placed a majority of the population through the country into serfdom. The Spanish were looking more to expand their borders by acquiring colonies in part of Africa and the Americas. Now Russia and Spain alike could trade by sea. Spanish expansionism occurred across the globe and had deep implications for the indigenous peoples subjected to foreign rule and the Europeans back home while the
Russian expansion was confined to the Eurasian landmass. For the Spanish it meant that they had more resources than the Russians. Russians had only a little landmass compared to

the Spanish. The Spanish empire was growing at a faster rate than the Russians, they made money off the Russians from trading goods from the Americas.

It was easier for the Spanish to expand rather than the Russians, because the Russians had to fight other nations but the Spanish just had to fight the native people, who at first didn’t fight but were instead decimated by disease. Both Spain and Russia subjected “lesser” peoples to virtual slavery in order to produce mass profits for