Hello all. I'm taking my AP European History midterm tomorrow, and I'm working with some of my peers to create outlines for the possible essay topics. I'm stuck on one of them:
"In the 17th century, England and the Netherlands developed effective capitalist economies, while Spain did not. Why did the economies develop so differently in England and the Netherlands on the one hand, and in Spain, on the other?"
I've been researching this for about 30 minutes and I'm stuck. Can anyone give me a quick idea of where I can go with this? I'd really appreciate any help.
Best wishes.
EDIT: Thought I ought to add some of what I've found so far. It seems that England and the Netherlands tended to expand overseas more, while Spain focused on deriving all profits from American colonies. Do you think that that could be the central idea for this essay? Keep in mind that this is an FRQ - about 1.5 pages written.
You'll want to talk about the differences in how England and Netherlands treated trade and their colonies. You may want to consider the role the Jewish banking families had on all three, as well as the more general motivation for expansion between the two.
Really though, at 1.5 pages you'll want to find a focused point/counter point relationship that quickly and easily identifies a key difference and then back that difference up with supporting evidence.