Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480-1630Not since 1945 has a general account of the origins of the British Empire been published, as if the demise of the empire freed us from our imperial past and historians from any obligation to digest it. Of course, it has done nothing of the kind, but it does enable the historian today to approach that past in a more critical spirit and to attempt a deeper and more detached analysis than could have been expected a generation ago. The purpose of this work is therefore not merely to recount but to explain the course of English overseas expansion and the beginning of the overseas empire; a prolonged pregnancy, culminating in a difficult birth and sickly infancy. The introductory essay discusses the forces and motives involved in the expansion movement, which is seen as being part of a wider European movement and derivative in many ways from it. The author considers the attitude and conduct of the Tudors and early Stuarts towards this fundamentally commercial movement and examines the nature and importance of sea power, the contribution of different social groups, and the relevance of religious and economic ideals as well as nationalistic sentiment. These various themes are taken up again in the narrative chapters which follow, dealing with the enterprises of exploration, trade, plunder and colonisation successively through from the early Bristol quest for 'Brasil' to the diverse ventures of the 1620s. |
Contents
Early ventures 14801550 | 41 |
The Northeast | 64 |
From Muscovy to Persia | 76 |
The Levant | 87 |
Western Africa | 101 |
The Caribbean | 116 |
Beyond the equinoctial | 135 |
Northwest with Frobisher and Davis | 167 |
The seawar 15851603 | 223 |
The East India Company | 256 |
The West Indies 15851630 | 280 |
North America 15911630 | 304 |
North and Northwest 160232 | 341 |
Reflections | 356 |
Bibliography | 365 |
379 | |
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Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the ... Kenneth R. Andrews No preview available - 1984 |
Common terms and phrases
adventurers American World Armada Atlantic Azores Brazil Bristol Cape Captain Caribbean century coast colony command commercial company's course crown Davis Discovery of America Dutch earl early East India Company Elizabeth Elizabethan empire England English English merchants enterprise European expansion expedition exploration fleet force France Francis Drake French Frobisher gentlemen Gilbert gold Grenville Guiana Guinea Hakluyt Harborne Hawkins Henry Hudson Iberian Indians interest Islands James John Dee king land later Levant Levant Company Light on Drake London London merchants maritime Martin Frobisher Muscovy Company naval navigation navy Newfoundland North America northwest passage oceanic overseas Persia Philip pinnace plantation plunder Plymouth ports Portugal Portuguese privateering prize promoters Purchas queen Ralegh Richard Richard Hakluyt River royal Russia sailed settlement Sir John slaves Spain Spaniards Spanish spices Strait Surat tons took trade treasure Vardø venture vessels victuals Virginia West Indies William Williamson
Popular passages
Page 1 - so in this most famous and peerlesse governement of her most excellent Majesty, her subjects through the speciall assistance, and blessing of God, in searching the most opposite corners and quarters of the world, and to speake plainly, in compassing the vaste globe of the earth more than once, have excelled all the nations and people of the earth.
Page 31 - severall endes. Some seeke authoritie and places of commandement, others experience by seeing of the worlde, the most part worldly and transitorie gaine, and that often times by dishonest and unlawfull meanes, the fewest number the glorie of God and the saving of the soules of the poore and blinded infidels.