The British empire, widely labelled the most expansive of its kind throughout recorded history by various historians and for good reason, owes its success to a multitude of factors. From colonisation and religious conversion to new trade routes and a constant demand for new resources. Arguably, however, the foundation for the empire’s achievements can be attributed to Britain’s extensive exploration/discovery exploits. Continuously watching from the sidelines with countries such as Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands bolstering their global empires through constant conquest, colonisation, an abundance of new world resources, and discovery of new efficient trade routes, created a new nationalistic mindset within the British monarchy due to …show more content…
Eventually, laying the foundations for the formation of the largest global empire in history.
The desire for expansion within the British empire arose due to a culmination of heavy losses in terms of warfare, particularly with France at the end of the hundred years’ war, great envy toward their rivals, a longing for exotic commodities, but also a crippling debt in the monarchy was a key factor. In the 16th century, however, the state neglected to fully commit itself to help fund voyages of exploration, settlement, and colonisation, due to a lack of resources. T. O. Lloyd, in his book ‘The British Empire 1558-1983’, explains “The government certainly had no money to spare to help the colonies, and this introduced the general rule that English colonies had to cover their own costs.” Therefore, much of the conquest and discovery was left in the hands of privateers and private enterprises “whose concern for immediate gain was detrimental to long-term planning needed to promote colonisation.” The first real expedition
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Part of the incentive to discover and inhabit North America came from men like George Peckham and Richard Hakluyt who penned long persuasive pleas/advertisements that would occasionally urge the monarchy and the affluent to back English exploration and colonisation. Hakluyt, in his ‘Discourse of Western Planting’, tries to convince the then queen, Elizabeth I, that voyages to this new continent will bring many benefits. “that this western voyage will yield unto us all the commodities of Europe, Africa, and Asia as far as we were want to travel and supply the wants of all our decayed trades.” “This enterprise will be for the manifold employment of numbers of idle men, and for breeding of many sufficient and for utterance of the great quantity of the commodities of our Realm.” While many of these colonies were unsuccessful, even disastrous, most notably Roanoke under Walter Raleigh, The French, and Spanish suffered similar setbacks such as fort Caroline and the Ajacán mission. Eventually, with colonies such as Jamestown, Plymouth, and the discovery of the Hudson Strait provided enough testimony that these expeditions were worthwhile, and Britain was starting to conduct them effectively, colonies such as these would ultimately become the bedrock for the empire’s crowning achievement, British America. “The
The transatlantic slave trade or triangular trade was a trade system involving Britain, Europe, Africa, America and the West Indies. Goods such as firearms and alcohol were taken from Britain to Africa in exchange for slaves. The slaves were then taken to America and the West Indies where they were exchanged for rum and sugar for the voyage back to Britain. It can be argued that the key reason for the development of the British economy in the 18th century was its role in the slave trade, although there were many other factors involved such as the industrial revolution and the British Empire.
o Although technically North America belonged to the Spanish, the English went around the borders of North America in search of profitable goods. o They became successful in defended a Spanish Armada which led to the grant of the Virginia Company. The English hoped to find an empire that would improve and support their country.
The British men gathered full control of the trading center present in the Americas, and created the Navigation Acts to help aid them in their tactics to take control over all trade within the Americas. The Navigation Acts were passed under a mercantilist system, and was used to regulate trade in a way that only benefitted the British economy. These acts restricted trade between England and its colonies to English or colonial ships, required certain colonial goods to pass through England before export, provided subsidies for the production of certain raw goods in the colonies, and banned colonial competition in large-scale manufacturing. This lowered the competition in the trading world for the British and caused the British to have a major surge in power, that greatly attributed to the growth of their rising empire. The British’s ambitious motives in the trading world help portray a way that the British took control of an important piece in the economy of all of the other nations present in the colonies in the time period, and shows another leading factor in the growth of the British empire.
Using specific examples from the primary source, address the following questions. 1. What was Jules Ferry’s economic argument for imperial expansion? Why had colonies recently gained greater economic value?
Britain had built up a great debt and the colonies were a financial burden to run, to try and resolve their problems the British instituted various measures
The American Revolution (1775-1783) refers to the time period when the thirteen established colonies rose up against the British monarchy (newworldencyclopedia.org). For years, the British had taken advantage of those who lived in the thirteen colonies by imposing extremely restrictive taxes, acts, as well as policies that gave the colonists absolutely no governing power. Instead, they were given no representation, which was only one of many reasons colonists decided that it was time for a change. One of the reasons that the British sought to colonize was because it would allow them to increase their wealth.
In his discussion, Paine argues out that apart from gaining international respect, America would advance its own security and commerce by being able to trade with other partners in Europe and the globe. He mentions that all Europe should benefit from America’s goods not only Britain. He explains that by saying British are not the only people who settled the continent but different parts of Europe, so British should not be the only European country to benefit from the colonies. As a result of all the reasons above, the colonies needed no reason to continue submitting to Britain authority and should gain their
Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the monarchy began to expand their power and influence, eventually becoming absolute rulers. Having support from the merchant class, the monarchy attempted to unify and stabilize the nation states. In the late seventeenth, early eighteenth centuries, with hopes of expanding English trade and acquiring a broader market for English manufactured goods, the nation states were wealthy enough to fund voyages of discovery and exploration. Over time, ten colonies were established along the Atlantic coast of North America. The first permanent English settlement was established in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607 and in 1620 a ship landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, marking it as the second permanent English settlement.
A. Explain the reasons for English Colonization by doing the Following: A1. Discuss the political motivations for English Imperialism. The main political motivation for English Imperialism was due to the rivalries with its European Counterparts. Initially, European countries were looking for a water passage to China so they would be able to trade for their goods. Spain, who lead the charge, landed in Central and South America, captured gold and silver.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh had grants from the government to colonize America but failed as most of the settlers died. a. Roanoke Island- the site of the first attempted English colonization D. Motives for Colonization 1. Beneficial to the country a. National glory b. profit c. religious
How was this critical to the development and survival of the colonial economy? They needed to know Europe’s economic needs so that
As the world of global exploration and colonization grew, many powerful European empires set out to see what the New World had in store for them. Each empire had their own individual agendas and incentives for colonization. This led to the many differences between methods of colonization and exploration in every colony and region. The Atlantic World portrayed these contrasts between the Spanish, French, Dutch and British empires. However, the British settlements along the Eastern seaboard differed the most from those of other empires because there were no established policies or methods in British colonization, which led to differences in the economics and culture of each colony depending on who settled it.
The French and Indian War can be argued to have the most effect on altering the relations between Britain and the Colonies. The relationship between these two power houses began very subtle, as England followed through with a policy of salutary neglect toward the Colonies. The consequence of the war caused the Political and the Economic state of Britain to changed dramatically, causing them to act differently towards the Colonies. This made the Ideologies of the colonies change greatly. Becoming a winner of a mass of land was great to reward to Britain, but this caused them to change the way that they were going to govern, especially in North America.
Hired by England for even MORE money, Hudson’s discoveries laid the groundwork for Dutch colonization of the Hudson River region, as well as English land claims in Canada. Hudson continued
During the colonial era of America, Great Britain was able to reek the benefits of this royal colony’s success. This was in large part due to the fact that Britain was able to integrate this society into its imperial system. English leaders understood that the American colonies represented a marketplace for goods, a safety valve, and a place in which competition flourished with other leading empires. One of the most important reasons why Great Britain established colonies in America was to create another form of revenue.