Compare the different economic and political systems of spain, portugal, the netherlands, and france in the age of expansion

- Spain had a colonial government headed by lawyers and bureaucrats; had an upper class that had a say in political views and laws and a lower class that were forced to be laborers.

- Portugal was focused on economics, trading posts, factories, established plantations which replaced the native populations with thousands of slaves shipped from Africa.

- Dutch & French focused on colonization, commercial ventures never attracted large numbers of colonists, more dependent on the Indians as trading partners and military allies, allowed the Native Americans greater freedoms than the English