Trade, Exploration and Colonisation (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
Trade, Exploration and Colonisation
Introduction: England's position by mid-16th century
By the middle of Elizabeth's reign, Spain and Portugal had already built extensive trading networks and colonial empires in the Americas and Asia. England's overseas ventures remained limited, with activity restricted to Newfoundland cod fisheries and basic trading. The reign of Henry VIII had seen minimal interest in global expansion, as the monarch remained preoccupied with European politics, particularly his ambitions regarding France. Flanders provided an important but vulnerable market, susceptible to disruption when European conflicts erupted.
Elizabeth's accession marked a turning point. England began developing an empire built on international commerce rather than territorial conquest alone. This shift transformed England's global position over the following decades.
Shift in English attitudes during Elizabeth's reign
Spanish and Portuguese dominance
Spain and Portugal's early success in exploration stemmed from several advantages. Their geographical location on the Atlantic provided natural access to ocean routes. Both nations had developed advanced ship design and navigational techniques suited to long-distance ocean travel. Crucially, their governments actively encouraged maritime ventures through financial backing in the form of loans and charters.
The Iberian powers' success wasn't just about technology - it was also about state investment and government support for explorers. This governmental backing gave them a crucial advantage in the race for global expansion.
Henry VIII's limited engagement
During the early Tudor period, Henry VIII displayed little enthusiasm for creating a navy or pursuing overseas expansion. State investment in maritime ventures remained virtually nonexistent, with no financial encouragement provided to potential explorers. Henry's obsession with continental ambitions, particularly his desire to win territory in France, meant he failed to recognise that England's prosperity might depend on accessing lands beyond Europe.
Henry VIII's focus on European territorial ambitions rather than global trade represented a strategic miscalculation that left England far behind Spain and Portugal in establishing overseas connections. This short-sighted approach would take decades to overcome.
Transformation by 1600
By the turn of the century, England's approach had altered dramatically. Despite limited technical improvements in shipping, England had cultivated a reputation as a formidable sea-faring nation, establishing trading connections across different parts of the world.
English mariners successfully challenged the Iberian monopoly on newly discovered territories. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) was an agreement between Spain and Portugal that claimed all newly discovered lands belonged exclusively to these two powers. England rejected this claim. Spain, despite being the most powerful European nation at this time, had suffered damaging defeats at English hands, most notably the Spanish Armada.
The Treaty of Tordesillas attempted to divide the entire world between Spain and Portugal, with papal backing. By rejecting this treaty, England was essentially declaring its right to compete globally - a bold move that challenged both Spanish military power and papal authority.
English sailors became convinced they could locate new routes to the Far East by sailing either north-east or north-west. Although these missions ultimately failed in their primary objective, they generated various opportunities and contributed to geographical knowledge.
Attempts to find the North-East Passage
In 1553, at the start of Mary I's reign, Willoughby and Chancellor sailed north-east, hoping to find a route to China. Ice blocked their progress. However, profitable trade with Russia developed, leading to the establishment of the Muscovy Company. During a second voyage in 1555, Willoughby died and Chancellor drowned.
In the 1560s, Jenkinson explored southward from Russia into Persia, attempting to establish new trading links in that region. The Muscovy Company also helped break the monopoly held by the Hanseatic League in Baltic trade.
Although the North-East Passage to China was never found, these ventures created valuable commercial relationships with Russia that proved economically beneficial. This demonstrates how exploration failures could still produce unexpected successes.
Exploration of the North-West Passage
Frobisher sailed north of Canada in three expeditions (1576, 1577, 1578), discovering what he named the Frobisher Strait. His belief that he had found a route to China proved incorrect.
During his circumnavigation (1577-80), Drake sailed up the western coast of North America seeking where such a passage might emerge. This search also failed.
Between 1585-87, John Davis undertook three voyages that found nothing of commercial value. However, he made valuable contributions to Arctic mapping. Particularly important was his discovery that Greenland is geographically separate from America, with Baffin's Bay providing the separation.
These expeditions served as necessary preparation for later 17th-century success when Hudson explored what became known as Hudson's Bay. The Hudson Bay Company was founded to develop trade during the Stuart period, showing how persistent exploration eventually paid off.
Africa and the slave trade with the West Indies
Other mariners attempted to break into the trading monopolies held by Portugal and Spain. In 1562, John Hawkins travelled to Africa with brightly-coloured cloth and trinkets for barter. He captured local people and transported them as enslaved people to West Indian islands. He returned to England with money and sugar. Such profit meant the venture was repeated.
In 1564, a group of shareholders funded the second expedition. Investors included William Cecil, Leicester and (secretly) the Queen herself. The success of this second voyage prompted Philip II to warn England about privateering - state-sanctioned attacks on rival nations' shipping. However, in 1567 Hawkins sailed again, with Elizabeth supplying one ship, The Jesus of Lubeck. This expedition proved nearly disastrous, with Hawkins barely escaping capture by the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico.
Understanding Privateering
Privateering was a form of government-sanctioned piracy where monarchs granted licenses (called "letters of marque") allowing private ship owners to attack enemy vessels. This allowed England to damage Spanish trade without formally declaring war, though Spain understandably viewed it as an act of aggression.
Between 1572-73, Francis Drake took up the challenge, leading an expedition that succeeded in capturing Spanish silver at Nombre de Dios. The dangers such expeditions posed became clear when John Oxenham tried to repeat the exploit but was caught and hanged.
Drake's circumnavigation of the globe (1577-80) further damaged Spain's reputation at sea. He raided the west coast of Spanish America and captured the Cacafuego with her cargo of silver. Drake returned as leader of only the second expedition to circumnavigate the globe, having made a profit of 4,000 per cent.
Worked Example: Drake's Extraordinary Profit
Drake's circumnavigation (1577-80) represents one of the most profitable ventures in exploration history. A 4,000% profit means that for every 40 in return. If investors contributed 40,000 back - an extraordinary return that demonstrates why privateering became so attractive to English investors and the Crown.
These ventures stalled in the remainder of Elizabeth's reign because she and her ministers faced the need to concentrate on defence and European affairs. However, the pattern of confident English privateers operating against Spanish shipping had become established.
Colonisation attempts
Observing the enormous success achieved by the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, interest grew in English colonisation. A 700,000-word book by Richard Hakluyt titled Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation, published in 1589, stimulated enthusiasm for expansion. Hakluyt meticulously gathered first-hand accounts from sailors returning from expeditions. John Dee similarly revised maps and charts when sailors returned with new information.
Hakluyt's work praised English achievements, describing English people as exceptional. He wrote that they had been "men full of activity, stirrers abroad, and searchers of remote parts of the world" who, through "the special assistance and blessing of God", had excelled "all the nations and people of the earth" in exploring distant regions. This source suggests a sense of English superiority and divine favour that helped justify colonial ambitions.
Humphrey Gilbert developed an interest in establishing colonies in north-western America for trading purposes. He received a patent from the Queen granting him rights over any land captured and financed mostly by the Cathay Company. In 1578 he sailed attempting to establish a colony, which proved unsuccessful, as did another expedition to Newfoundland in 1583. His half-brother, Walter Raleigh, gained a patent for a colony to be called Virginia, but two attempts in 1585 and 1587 failed.
Why Elizabethan Colonisation Failed
With focus firmly on Europe following the 1588 Armada, Raleigh's only other expedition occurred in 1595 up the Orinoco in Guiana, searching for El Dorado, a mythical Inca civilisation. Successful colonies were not established until the reign of James I, at Jamestown in 1607 and in New England in 1620. The failure of Elizabethan colonisation attempts stemmed from insufficient resources, lack of sustained support, and the priority given to European conflicts.
Attempts to develop trade with India
Some sailors believed that success in the profitable trades of India and beyond held the key to future trading wealth. The Portuguese Empire in the region was weakly defended and could potentially be infiltrated, though early attempts achieved little. For example, in 1583 Newbery and Fitch made a notable overland journey to India, reaching Portuguese Goa and visiting the court of the Great Mogul, Akbar.
In 1591, Lancaster successfully sailed around Africa and reached the East Indies, capturing two Portuguese ships. However, the return journey proved nightmarish, with insufficient supplies to reach England. He sailed instead to the West Indies where the crew mutinied and abandoned him. The crew was not heard of again, but Lancaster was eventually picked up by French privateers and returned home to tell his story in 1594.
This served as a prelude to what emerged as the major success story of the Elizabethan period. In 1600, the East India Company was created by a group of merchants. With its backing, Lancaster made another expedition. Following Elizabeth's death in 1603, he returned with fully-laden ships. This marked the beginning of the East India Company's development, which led to India becoming central to the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The East India Company would become Britain's most valuable trading enterprise, eventually controlling vast territories in India. Though founded in Elizabeth's reign, its real expansion occurred under her successors, demonstrating how Elizabethan exploration laid foundations for later imperial success.
Trade networks during Elizabeth's reign
England developed trading connections in both the Baltic and Mediterranean regions during this period. English exports to Russia and Baltic states included cloth, tin, and herring. From these regions, England imported timber, copper, iron, tar, and potash from Sweden, along with flax, hemp, timber, wax, and tallow from Russia. Corn came from Muscovy.
English exports to the Mediterranean included cloth, timber, herring, tin, and ironmongery. In return, England imported sugar and saltpetre from the Barbary coast, and silk, indigo, cotton, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, and cloves from the Levant. Before 1575, cloth shipments went overland via Amsterdam.
These trading relationships demonstrated England's growing commercial reach, even as colonisation efforts remained unsuccessful during Elizabeth's lifetime. The diversity of imports - from Baltic naval supplies to Mediterranean luxury goods - shows how England was building a complex web of commercial connections that would support future imperial expansion.
Key dates: Trade, exploration and colonisation
- 1553 - Muscovy Company established
- 1562 - John Hawkins established trade with Africa
- 1576-78 - Frobisher's expeditions to Canada seeking north-west route
- 1577-80 - Drake's voyage around the world
- 1589 - Publication by Richard Hakluyt
- 1591 - Lancaster established trade with East Indies
- 1595 - Raleigh sailed up the Orinoco in Guiana
- 1600 - East India Company established
These dates represent the foundational period of English global expansion. While many individual expeditions failed in their immediate objectives, collectively they established England as a maritime power and created the commercial networks that would underpin the later British Empire.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
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England's approach to overseas expansion transformed during Elizabeth's reign, shifting from Henry VIII's European focus to global trade ambitions
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Multiple attempts to find North-East and North-West passages to China failed in their primary objective but established profitable trade with Russia through the Muscovy Company and expanded geographical knowledge
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John Hawkins pioneered English involvement in the transatlantic slave trade (1562, 1564, 1567), while Drake's circumnavigation (1577-80) and privateering raids damaged Spanish prestige and brought substantial profits (4,000% return)
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Colonisation attempts by Gilbert and Raleigh failed during Elizabeth's reign; successful permanent colonies only emerged under James I
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The establishment of the East India Company in 1600 marked the foundation of what would become Britain's most valuable trading relationship, though major development occurred after Elizabeth's death
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England's transformation from a marginal trading nation to a formidable maritime power laid the groundwork for the later British Empire, even though most Elizabethan colonial ventures ended in failure