England: explorations and colonization (for individual work)
England: explorations and colonization
The English claimed parts of North America as early as the 1490s, thanks to the voyages of John Cabot, who attempted to find a Northwest Passage to Asia through Canada’s Arctic waters. During the 1570s Martin Frobisher made another three voyages to try and find the Northwest passage.
In the 1500s, the English moved into the New World as part of their commercial and naval rivalry with Spain. They established a presence in the Caribbean, particularly on the islands of Barbados and Jamaica (famous seventeenth century buccaneers’ base), and gained much knowledge about global navigation from their conflicts with the Spanish and Portuguese.
Francis Drake became the first Englishman to sail around the world (1577-1580) during a voyage whose main purpose was to raid Spanish ships and ports.
Drake returned to Plymouth in 1580 in a vessel the Golden Hinde, with fifty-nine crew members and a hold laden with treasure. Following the advice of her counsellors, the queen made a nominal effort to suppress written accounts of Drake’s voyages, and participants were sworn to silence for fear of Spanish reprisal. Drake was given control of the treasure and promised £10,000, making him one of the wealthiest men in England. The queen’s half-share of the cargo surpassed the rest of the crown’s income for that entire year (besides the constant barrage of gifts from Drake). She had the Golden Hinde docked on the Thames as a memorial of his voyage and held a grand banquet on board in Drake’s honour. During the festivities, Elizabeth knighted him.
It was the rise of the English “Elizabethan” pirates, a bold group that included such notable figures as John Hawkins and Francis Drake. The Elizabethans, as the name suggests, were active during the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). As in other cases, the Elizabethan pirates often became privateers, or crown-sanctioned mercenaries, during wartime, in this case after 1585 (Anglo-Spanish war of 1585–1604). War or no war, however, from the Spanish point of view Drake and his compatriots were still pirates when attacking Iberian targets “beyond the line,” that is, in waters claimed by Spain or Portugal.
In their adventures the English seamen were driven by Protestantism and patriotism combined with greed for booty.
The most of the piratical, explorative and colonial ventures were organized on the joint-stock companies basis. Not only the money capital but also parts of ships and ammunition were shared among the shareholders. Sometimes one of shareholders might be a ruling family member, including the queen or king.
In the 1600s, the English established colonies on the North American mainland. Their first successful settlement was Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607 and led by John Smith. Soon after, religious minorities came to North America to flee persecution in England. The Mayflower Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, and Puritans also founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628. Pennsylvania owed its existence to the Quaker William Penn. Economics mattered as well.
From the New World, the English took sugarcane, timber, corn, potatoes, and tobacco. They also searched for furs, and the Hudson's Bay Company, incorporated in 1670, intruded into Canada and other French colonies for that purpose.
As in other parts of the New World, coerced labour was part of life in English settlements: many colonists paid for their passage by means of indentured servitude, and the English gradually came to rely on Africans brought over by the Atlantic slave trade.
The English also ventured into the Indian Ocean and South Asia. Their first expedition to the Indies came in 1591. With the Dutch, they interfered with Portuguese trade and forced Portugal to abandon some of its outposts and ports. In 1600, they founded the British East India Company to manage economic and military relations with South and Southeast Asia. The English gained a presence in northwestern India by 1608 and eventually took over more of the subcontinent.
By the 1700, England’s principal enemy was France. Eventually, Canada was taken from France as a result of the French and Indian Wars (1754-1763), which were related to the Seven Years' War in Europe. Also during the Seven Years’ War, English troops defeated Mughal states allied to the French, ensuring that England, not France, would go on to gain colonial mastery over India.
The English also seized the key port of Melaka, or Malacca (in Malaysia, also called Melaka in the early modern period), from the Dutch in 1795.
Expert questions
1. What were the stimuli of the English explorations and colonial expansion?
2. What tools and strategies did the English use in their colonial expansions and capital accumulation?
3. What role did the joint-stock companies (name the most important) play in the English colonization? Why, you think, were the joint-stock companies involved?
4. What were the main achievements of the English expansion? Were there any falls in this expansion during the considered period?
5. Compared with other nations (Spain, Portugal, France and Holland) what were the distinct features of England? (before giving answer read other nations in the theme 8 section)