What were the major problems facing the eighteenth-century French Monarchy?

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Was her empire a blessing or a curse to early modern Spain?

The unification of the crowns of Aragon and Castile in 1469 was the origin of modern Spain and the beginning of the Spanish Empire. Spain was Europe's leading power throughout the 16th century and most of the 17th century; a position reinforced by trade and wealth from colonial possessions. Her Empire was vast and stretched across the globe: from great territories in the Americas, to the East Indies and various cities in North Africa and Europe. This was an age of discovery, when seaborne exploration opened-up new trade routes across the oceans of the world. And the arrival of precious metals, spices, tobacco, sugar and new colonies developed Spain’s Empire of the Early Modern period.  

The unification of Spain began with the Reconquista. The reconquest of Muslim Granada played a vital role, in the unification of Spain, by acting as a common ground for both kingdoms of Christian Spain to acknowledge. There were three main Christian political powers in Spain: Castile, Aragon and Portugal. The unification of the houses of Aragon and Castile now provided a rivalry between ‘modern Spain’ and Portugal and they were given the title ‘most Christian monarchs’ after conquering the Muslim influence in Spain and by 1492 the expulsion or conversion of  any Jews. It was the combination of the crusade like reconquest of Granada, the unification of Spain, and now a strong maritime and commercial rivalry with Portugal and this ideology that made Spain push for exploration; the “reconquest helped develop among Medieval Spanish Christians a pioneer psychology”.

The path to Spain gaining an empire was provided by the voyages of Christopher Columbus. He sailed west in the hope of finding a new and easier route to Asia. “Columbus believed that if he sailed due west, on a course of 270 degrees, he would hit the great island of Cipangu” . Contrary to his beliefs he stumbled on a yet unknown land mass that he believed to be Asia. The first attempts of establishing Empire in the New World produced little valuable commodities, and as a result the colonists in the Caribbean Islands exploited a new form of feudalism, encomienda, to supply cheap and reliable labour from the natives, as his promise of “oro sin cuento” (incalculable gold) was not guaranteed. It is with these attempts of early empire that “The age of explorers was ending, and the age of the conquistadors was at hand” and with them they obtained undreamed riches for themselves and their monarchs.

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The most successful and famous examples of conquest in the Americas are the toppling of the highly civilised and developed Aztec empire and the fall of the Incas. Both Empires contained vast resources of silver, gold, precious stones and other valuable commodities. The toppling of these great Empires relied on the superiority of weapons, tactics and strategy; political divisions, disease and misapprehension of the Spaniards’ intentions, ambitions, identity and strength. In the case of the Aztec Empire, Cortés exploited there unfamiliarity with the technology used by Europeans and aliens in their native country. Moreover, the use of horses, armour ...

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