First British Colonies Essay

Britain began to expand at the turn of the 16th century, setting off a huge wave of hope and sacrifice. In 1585, a man filled with hope named Sir Walter Raleigh, took his chances in the New World and started one of the first British colonies (“The First English Settlements”). Raleigh named the new settlement Virginia, after the “Virgin Queen”, Elizabeth I (“British Colonial Expansion”). All one hundred men that first settled there ended up leaving, seeing that there was no hope in the land. Raleigh made a second attempt to colonize the New World in 1587 naming it Roanoke, Virginia (“The First English Settlements”). The supply ships did not come to the rescue until it was too late. The whole colony was abandoned, there was not even a sign of

(Hutson, “America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century”) As I mentioned before, King Phillip II was angered because his ships were being plundered by English men. So he began to assemble his fleet of 130 ships with 30,000 men aboard called the Spanish Armada. England defeated the Spanish Armada which “…ensured England’s naval dominance in the North Atlantic and built their confidence and their ambition in the New World” (“The First English Settlements”). And France on the other hand, was basically bankrupt and disorganized because of the French Revolution. So France’s presence was not as strong as England’s was. Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Phillip II were all monarchs essential to England’s presence in North America. England needed to expand because the population was growing at a rate that the land could not support. Also, because of the economy at the time there needed to be more opportunities for work. Finally, there needed to be a place for religious groups to take refuge because they were not accepted in England at the