Although King Henry VII and a group of Bristol merchants had dispatched the Italian mariner John Cabot to North America in 1497 to search for a route to Asia, no further English exploration or colonization took place until the reign of Elizabeth I, when the political and religious conflicts connected with the English reformation abated. England’s renewed efforts were not auspicious. Backed by a group of investors who formed the Company of Cathay (China), Martin Frobisher made three voyages to North America between 1576 and 1578 in search of gold and the Northwest Passage to Asia, but found neither. Five years later, an effort promoted by Sir Humphrey Gilbert to colonize North America ended in tragedy when the expedition was lost at sea while sailing south from Newfoundland. These setbacks did not discourage a small group of merchants, mariners, and courtiers who continued to formulate plans for colonization and promote them at Elizabeth’s court.Included in this group was Richard Hakluyt, the son of a minor London merchant, who was orphaned at age five and raised by an older cousin, a lawyer. Through contacts with his cousin’s friends and business associates, the young Hakluyt developed an interest in trade and exploration. Although he studied Greek and Latin at Oxford, his intellectual passion was geography, which he learned from books, maps, and reports from mariners, merchants, and explorers. Ordained a priest in the Church of England, Hakluyt still had time to write books on exploration and lobby royal officials and Queen Elizabeth herself on behalf of various proposals to colonized North America.
In 1584, Hakluyt wrote a lengthy memorandum to Queen Elizabeth in support of a proposal by Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, to colonize the east coast of North America, known at the time as Norumbega. Elizabeth declined, pleading lack of money, and thin funding was one of several reasons why the Roanoke Colony failed. Hakluyt and other supporters of English colonization continued to lobby on behalf of their ideas, however, and during the reign of James I the chartering of the Virginia Company and the Plymouth Company marked the true beginnings of the successful English colonization of North America.
The document that I would like you to read (you can read the document by clicking here) is the concluding summary to Hakluyt’s memorandum to Elizabeth. After reading the document, I would like you all to think about and discuss the following: According to Hakluyt, what are the economic advantages England might expect from colonizing Norumbega? According to Hakluyt, how will colonization strengthen England and weaken its rivals? According to Hakluyt, how will colonization help solve England’s domestic problems? How important is religion in Hakluyt’s thinking about colonization? How much concrete knowledge of the Americas does Hakluyt seem to have? Your thoughts…
10 comments:
seems like he wanted goods, land, glory, and a place to put people. he wanted to have more trade and more goods to trade, and also the land would just be useful for ports, agriculture, and to put the growing population, namely poor people. the glory bit also comes in in that they wanted to be better than the spanish.
When Hakluyt tells the Queen the purposes of the exploration he is telling her the economic advantages will be that they can trade wool and make a profit from it along with other commodoties from the people buying it who live there. He says it will help solve domestic problems by preventing the Spanish from dominating all the colonization of the America's.
These are the reasons I could understand:
They can grow things in the new country that they have to buy now. It's not too far to travel to. They can sell their products to the natives?
Of course they want to convert the natives to Christianity.
If there happens to be a war, untried soldiers can fight in the far away country to get experience, and if they survive they can defend england better.
Men that have commited crimes can be sent away rather than killed.
it was a good idea to Hakluyt to colonize the east of the US cuz it would probably be profit because we had some gold over here and wool.. he wanted what he thought was best for his society and he was very smart
the first thing that it says is that many different crops can grow on the land. More trade can happen here with the new crops and the new areas to trade with. The people here can glorify the gospel more for god in their belief. It says that old people may live in this peaceful place as well as children can grow up better here. Also, men are sent here for their crimes in stead of killed.
Some economic advantages England got was that because they sponsored the colonies, England got much commodities such as cotton which was needed in bundles, and the English couldn't generate that much, with the little land they had compared to America. So they traded, made money, the Americans were happy, and in time they relied on each other to make profit and coexisted by mutual shares.
England got stronger when they placed colonies because they got extra amounts of money, that they couldn't get beforehand, and they soon limited the colonies to trade with only England, this made England powerful using economics as a weapon in the battlefield.
It reminds me of Monopoly. The more you own, the more money you can get, more you can buy, sooner or later you own everything unless someone blocks you, but England owned a lot and the stronger it grew, and made its enemies weak.
He wanted everything but the labor. The sole purpose of this trip is to bring goods. I guess England was not yet ready to settle in this place
He states that if the English set up a colony there, it will stop the Spanish king making safe trips to and from America, so they can put more men there. They will also stop the growth of the wealth of the enemy countries. They also will not have to pay the taxes on items from foreign providers. It will help with the English population problem and will give them more hands to work with the resources. It will help people be away from religious persecution. The religion one was not very high on his list of things, most of it being economy and enemy country related
According to Hakluyt advantages of colonizing America are
- They can grow everything they currently have to import in America
- The voyage can be made two times a year
- He believes this is a step that England must take to remain a key player
- They can beat the Spannish this way.
- It will create better English sailors
- goods won't be taxed so more people will be domestic goods and not buy taxed foreign goods.
- They will be able to come and go cheaply and on their own time without having a prince telling them what to do
- Making ships will create jobs
- Spread christianity
- Stop short trade, resulting in idleness leading to piracy, creating long trade leading to a decrease in piracy
- Criminals can have a second chance rather than being hung
- Soldiers can be employed in territory wars
- The poor can be shipped off
Religion is a very small part of the picture. He is more concerned with the "glory" and wealth of England and probably the wealth of himself. He seems to know very little about the Americas other than that the Spannish are ahead of them, that it has fertile land. He speaks as if it is their right to go and take over America.
Hakluyt tried to tell every pros of colonization. THe economical and the materialistic gain was great. For example, # 10 and #12 explains about how cheaply they can trade and buy. #13 and #14 explains about the goods they can gain. #16 explains how they can spread Christianity. # 18 explaisn about how they can free the natives and make them come to the British side to fight against Spaniards (I think). #20 explains about the exiled British living in the America. #21 about employment.
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