In 1485, the last Plantagenet king of England fell in battle. His name was Richard the Third, and he was killed on the battleground of Bosworth Field. The winner of the battle was a young man named Henry, who then became “Henry the Seventh.” He was the first of the Tudor rulers of England. Henry had been on the Lancastrian side of the “Wars of the Roses.” But, when he married a Yorkist lady in 1486, the two factions from the civil war were finally united, since he was marrying someone from that faction. Her name was Elizabeth of York, and she would eventually give birth to a son in 1491. The boy was the future “Henry the Eighth,” who would eventually form the new “Church of England.” (More about that here.) But, at that time, the boy’s birth signaled a formal end to the “Wars of the Roses.” The following year was 1492, the year that Christopher Columbus was arriving in the Americas. Spain and Portugal would soon be creating massive overseas empires, in which they spread their longtime Catholic faith to distant shores. Henry the Seventh was still the king of England in 1496, when he commissioned John Cabot to sail to Asia. Cabot sailed in 1497, but instead landed on the coast of Newfoundland – in what is today Canada. They did not yet attempt to found a colony there. Cabot later made another voyage to the Americas, but did not return. To this day, no one knows what happened to Cabot’s ships.
A replica of John Cabot’s ship the Matthew
Early English attempts at colonization – first in Ireland, and then in distant America
When Henry the Eighth later founded the Church of England, the newly Protestant England would soon become the bitter rival of Catholic Spain. Henry the Eighth declared that England was now an “empire.” Some date this as the beginning of the “English Empire” – the predecessor of the more famous “British Empire.” When Elizabeth the First became queen, she eventually commissioned privateering raids against the Spanish shipping in West Africa. The privateers included John Hawkins and, most famously, Sir Francis Drake. The goal of these raids was to establish an Atlantic slave trade. Later on, privateering raids also targeted Spanish ports in the Americas, and Spanish ships in the Atlantic that were laden with treasure from the New World. But, as far as English colonization went, the English would begin much closer to home in nearby Ireland. The colonization of Ireland had begun back during the Norman era, but it was expanded much further during the Tudor era. In 1584, there was a Roanoke Colony, in what is today the American state of North Carolina. But the colony soon failed, due to a lack of supplies. This would be the last major colony for Tudor England. But the Tudor dynasty was about to come to a sudden and abrupt end.
Sir Francis Drake, English privateer
English colonization in the Caribbean, and further colonies in North America
Specifically, in 1603, Queen Elizabeth the First died childless. Thus, “James the Sixth of Scotland” now also became James the First of England. The Stuart dynasty had already been ruling Scotland for centuries, but they were now to control England itself as well. This had important consequences for future British history. It would eventually lead to the creation of the “Kingdom of Great Britain” in the following century. (More about that later on in this post.) But, for now, James made peace with Catholic Spain in 1604. Up until then, the English had focused on taking the pre-existing colonies of their European rivals. Now, the English switched tactics to creating some new colonies of their own. There was an English colony in South America in 1604, at a place called “Guiana.” In the Caribbean, the English colonized St. Lucia in 1605, and Grenada in 1609. But these colonies were soon abandoned, for a variety of reasons. For more permanent colonies, the English would have to look elsewhere. These colonies came as the English colonized the coast of North America. This included the famous Jamestown colony in 1607, in what is today Virginia. But that colony soon failed, due to disease and starvation. In 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, in what is today Massachusetts. This colony would also have problems with disease and starvation, but would ultimately be far more lasting. (More about that here.)
The ruined tower of the 17th century Jamestown Church (which is in Virginia)
Further colonization in the Caribbean, with comments on the Atlantic slave trade
Back in 1609, the English had taken Bermuda. Subsequently, they took St. Kitts in 1624, Barbados in 1627, and Nevis in 1628. Then, as Wikipedia puts it, “Large sugarcane plantations were first established in the 1640s on Barbados, with assistance from Dutch merchants and Sephardic Jews fleeing Portuguese Brazil. At first, sugar was grown primarily using white indentured labour, but rising costs soon led English traders to embrace the use of imported African slaves.[footnote] The enormous wealth generated by slave-produced sugar made Barbados the most successful colony in the Americas,[footnote] and one of the most densely populated places in the world.[footnote] This boom led to the spread of sugar cultivation across the Caribbean, financed the development of non-plantation colonies in North America, and accelerated the growth of the Atlantic slave trade, particularly the triangular trade of slaves, sugar and provisions between Africa, the West Indies and Europe.” (Source: Their page on the “British Empire”) This would have a major effect upon the British West Indies colony. In 1655, England then took Jamaica from the Spanish. The English also took “New Netherland” from the Dutch in 1664. This included the capture of “New Amsterdam,” at what is now known as New York City. The English then took the Bahamas from Spain in 1666. In 1670, King Charles the Second incorporated the “Hudson’s Bay Company,” granting it a monopoly on the fur trade in Canada. But much of Canada had already been settled by the French, roughly a century earlier. It would be a while before the English would become the dominant force in Canada. Elsewhere in the world, the Royal African Company was now a major player in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. As Wikipedia puts it, “To facilitate the shipment of slaves, forts were established on the coast of West Africa, such as James Island, Accra and Bunce Island.” (Source: Their page on the “British Empire”)
A 1670 illustration of African slaves working in 17th-century colonial Virginia
Colonization in the distant East Indies archipelago, as well as in India
The Atlantic slave trade would have unfortunate effects upon the history of all involved here. But there was also European colonization in Asia, focused mainly on two places. One was the East Indies archipelago, and the other was India – an important hub of their trade network. After their wars with the Dutch, the English had a strong hand in Asia, with which to challenge the Portuguese dominance there. England had fought ferociously against the Dutch, but then saw “William of Orange” accede to the English throne – in the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688. William was Dutch by birth, so he orchestrated a new peace between the Dutch and the English. Thus, England was now joining with the Netherlands in challenging Portuguese control of this network. These ventures would involve the Dutch East India Company, and the English East India Company – later to be known as the “British East India Company.” Some of this trade involved spices, but the textile trade was soon to become even more important there. Regardless, the English and the Dutch were then allies in the “Nine Years’ War,” against Spain and France. The Dutch were focusing on the war closer to home, while the English were able to expand their empire abroad. The English were the beneficiaries of this division.
Fort St. George in Madras, India (founded in 1639)
Conclusion: In 1707, the English Empire is then replaced by a truly British Empire
In 1701, the “War of the Spanish Succession” began – pitting England, Portugal, and the Netherlands against Spain and France. This war would last for more than a decade. During that war, England and Scotland were joined by the Acts of Union in 1707. They had technically been informally joined together already, since the Stuart takeover of England back in 1603. But a chance was then arising that the crown would go to one person back in Scotland, and another person there in England. The Parliament was willing to help Queen Anne to change this situation, but only if she agreed to some of their demands. She thus agreed, so the Acts of Union were finally passed. It was then that this early “English Empire” was replaced … by a truly British Empire. Its story would then continue under that new name, as I will detail in my next blog post. Suffice it to say that the foundations of the British Empire were laid in this early period, by conflicts with other European powers. For good and bad, it had set the tone for all subsequent British colonization, and for the administration of the ones that already existed. And the post-1707 period would bring its own problems for the empire – including revolutions in America and France, and massive wars with Napoleon. For more about this next period, see my second blog post of this trilogy, which details the crucial events of the eighteenth (and early nineteenth) centuries in Britain. (Here, if you’re interested.)
If you liked this post, you might also like:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment