Ch. 13's Big Question: In thinking about the similarities and differences among the empires of the early modern era, what categories of comparison might be most useful to consider?

The similarities and differences among the empires of the early modern era, I might use European colonization in the Americas. This is similar to American and European students. Yet, this story "in the context of other empire-building projects of the early modern era, it takes on new and different meanings" (Strayer, 588). For instance, "a context helps to counter any remaining Eurocentrism in our thinking about the past by reminding us that Western Europe," (Strayer, 588) which was not an expansion of different peoples in culture. Therefore, the modern age is "derived from multiple sources" (Strayer, 588). This then raises a question, "How often do we notice that a European Christendom creating empires across the Atlantic was also the victim of Ottoman imperial expansion in the Balkans" (Strayer, 588)?

This kind of empire is distinctly used in Europe "as we view them in the mirror of other imperial creations" (Strayer, 588). In addition, "the Chinese, Mughal, and Ottoman empires continued older patterns of historical development," (Strayer, 588), whilst human history has been reflected in Europe, including "an interacting Atlantic world of Europe, Africa, and the Americas" (Strayer, 588). Moreover, the European empires had the best impact "on the peoples they incorporated than did other empires" (Strayer, 588). 

Europe has been "enriched and transformed by its American possessions far more than China and the Ottomans were by their territorial acquisitions" (Strayer, 588). This is the reason why "Europeans gained enormous new biological resources from their empires — corn, potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, tobacco, timber, and much more — as well as enormous wealth in the form of gold, silver, and land" (Strayer, 588). This then gives a phrase: "in world history, nothing stands alone; context is everything" (Strayer, 588), is the motto of world history.