Elizabeth I: Exploration, Colonisation & Privateering (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• England's explorers and privateers under Elizabeth mounted ambitious voyages across the globe, but the lasting gains of empire came only under James I

• England’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade was pioneered by John Hawkins in the 1560s

  • The third voyage ended in disaster at San Juan de Ulúa in 1568

• The most celebrated figure of the age was Francis Drake, the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe (1577–1580)

• Elizabeth used privateering as a tool of foreign policy, sharing in profits while avoiding formal responsibility for attacks on Spain

• Both attempts to establish a permanent colony in Virginia failed

  • No English settlement survived Elizabeth's reign

• Historians debate how significant Elizabethan exploration really was:

  • The reign produced no permanent colony and most expeditions failed, but the voyages established the foundations of English maritime power

Exploration & the 'New World': Drake, Raleigh & Hawkins

England and the 'New World'

• Spain and Portugal dominated overseas trade and settlement by the mid-16th century

  • The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) had divided the 'New World' between them

  • England had almost no overseas presence beyond the Newfoundland cod fisheries

  • English merchants had little incentive to look beyond Europe while cloth trade with the Netherlands remained strong

• English attitudes towards overseas expansion began to change under Elizabeth

  • Technical advances in shipbuilding made longer sea voyages more feasible

  • Growing tensions with Spain over the Netherlands made challenging Spanish trade routes attractive

  • A small number of ambitious merchants and sailors were eager to break into Spain's and Portugal's Atlantic monopolies

The search for new routes

• English sailors hoped to find sea routes to Asia that bypassed Spanish and Portuguese control

  • No successful route was found during Elizabeth's reign

  • The attempts did produce new geographical knowledge and new trading contacts

  • The main routes are summarised below:

John Hawkins and the Slave Trade

• John Hawkins was the first English sailor to profit significantly from the Transatlantic slave trade

• His three voyages are summarised below:

Francis Drake

• Drake became the defining figure of Elizabethan maritime ambition

• His key expeditions and voyages are summarised below

Walter Raleigh

• Raleigh was a court favourite who received a royal patent for the Virginia colony

  • His patent gave him rights over any land he claimed along the North American coast

  • He organised and financed the Roanoke ventures without always leading them in person

• In 1595, Raleigh sailed up the Orinoco River in South America

  • He was searching for El Dorado, a mythical city believed to be filled with gold

  • The expedition found nothing of value

• Raleigh's contribution was more as an organiser and promoter than as a voyager

  • His patronage kept the Virginia project alive even after the failure of Roanoke

Richard Hakluyt and the case for empire

• Richard Hakluyt (c.1552–1616), a clergyman and writer who promoted English exploration made the intellectual case for English overseas expansion

  • He collected first-hand accounts from sailors returning from voyages

  • He worked to revise maps and charts as new information came in

  • He framed exploration as both a patriotic duty and a calling from God

• In 1589, Hakluyt published his landmark collection of English voyages

  • Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation brought together accounts of exploration across the whole reign

  • It built public enthusiasm for further exploration and colonisation

  • It inspired the next generation of explorers who went on to succeed under James I

The Beginnings of English Colonisation: Roanoke & Virginia

• The vision of a permanent English colony in North America attracted several Elizabethan explorers

  • No colony survived Elizabeth's reign

  • The lessons learned shaped the more successful attempts made under James I

Humphrey Gilbert

• Humphrey Gilbert pioneered the idea of a permanent English colony in North America

  • He received a royal patent giving him rights over any land he claimed

  • In 1583, he claimed Newfoundland for England but failed to establish a lasting colony

  • On the return voyage, his ship The Squirrel went down and Gilbert was lost at sea

The Roanoke colonies

• After Gilbert's death, his half-brother Walter Raleigh took on the Virginia venture

  • Raleigh received a patent for a stretch of North American coastline, which he named Virginia

  • He organised two attempts to establish a colony on Roanoke Island

• The two Roanoke colonies are summarised below:

Why colonisation failed

• Private financing was insufficient for the scale of the challenge

  • Supply chains across the Atlantic were fragile and costly to maintain

  • Spanish hostility made the Atlantic crossing dangerous

  • Communication delays meant problems became crises before they could be solved

• However, the failure of Roanoke did not end the colonial project

  • Jamestown was successfully founded in 1607, under James I

  • New England was settled in 1620

  • Both drew on the experience gained during the Elizabethan failures

Towards trade with the East

• A route to India and the East Indies was another major goal of Elizabethan exploration

Privateering: Profit, Patriotism & Anglo-Spanish Relations

What was privateering?

• Privateers were private sailors who attacked enemy ships with royal approval

  • Unlike pirates, they operated with the backing of the Crown, whether tacit or formal

  • A letter of marque was an official written permission to attack enemy shipping

  • Elizabeth often gave informal backing rather than formal letters, giving her plausible deniability

• Privateering was attractive to everyone involved

  • For Elizabeth:

    • Revenue without the full cost of maintaining a war fleet

  • For the sailors:

    • Wealth, glory and patriotic purpose

  • For England:

    • A way to challenge Spain's Atlantic dominance without formally declaring war

Early tensions with Spain

• The earliest roots of English privateering lay in trade disputes with Spain

  • Spain controlled the Atlantic trade routes and Caribbean commerce

  • English sailors in the Caribbean were trespassing on Spanish dominance

• 1568 was the year tensions became open conflict

  • Elizabeth seized Spanish silver bullion being transported through the English Channel to pay Alba's army

    • Spain retaliated by banning English ships from the Netherlands

    • Trade between the two countries was disrupted until 1573

  • Both events hardened anti-Spanish feeling and pushed English sailors further towards open raiding

Privateering in practice

• Drake was the defining figure of English privateering

  • His 1572–1573 Panama raids established his reputation for daring against Spain

  • During the circumnavigation (1577–1580), he raided Spanish ports and seized the Cacafuego's silver

  • Elizabeth took a share of the profits while publicly denying any involvement in Drake's actions

  • Spain demanded she punish him

    • She knighted him instead

• Privateering became more openly part of royal foreign policy over time

  • The 1585 Caribbean raid was semi-official: Elizabeth was clearly pushing confrontation with Spain, coinciding with England’s intervention in the Netherlands (1585) and rising tensions leading to the Armada

  • The 1587 Cadiz raid was formally authorised by Elizabeth

  • By the 1590s, privateering had merged into the broader war effort against Spain

Was privateering worth it?

• In the short term, privateering generated significant wealth

  • Drake's circumnavigation produced large returns for its investors

  • Spanish silver and trade goods flowed into England's hands throughout the 1570s and 1580s

  • Elizabeth benefited financially without bearing the formal costs of war

• By the 1590s, the financial picture had changed

  • The costs of war with Spain were rising steeply

  • Spanish convoys were better defended and harder to attack profitably

  • The 1596–1597 raids on Spain produced diminishing returns

  • The deaths of both Drake and Hawkins in 1595–1596 ended the golden age of English privateering

How Significant was Exploration and Colonisation under Elizabeth?

• Use the specific evidence below to build and support your own argument

The case that exploration and colonisation were significant

• Drake’s circumnavigation (1577–1580) was an achievement no other English sailor had matched

  • It expanded English knowledge of trade routes across the Pacific

  • Spain could no longer assume its Pacific trade routes were beyond English reach

  • It enhanced England’s reputation as a maritime power across Europe

• Privateering generated real wealth for the Crown and investors throughout the 1570s and 1580s

  • Drake’s circumnavigation produced enormous returns for its investors

  • Elizabeth benefited financially without formally committing to war with Spain

• Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations (1589) built the intellectual case for empire

  • It sustained public enthusiasm for further exploration across the reign

  • It inspired the next generation of explorers who succeeded under James I

• The East India Company (1600) was the most enduring institutional legacy

  • It could not have existed without the foundation laid by Elizabethan exploration

  • It eventually became central to the British Empire in Asia

• England established itself as a maritime power capable of challenging Spain and Portugal

  • The Treaty of Tordesillas had seemed to close the world to England in 1494

  • By 1603, England was recognised as a serious seafaring nation

• Experience gained by sailors such as Drake and Hawkins contributed to England’s naval effectiveness against the Spanish Armada

The case that exploration and colonisation were of limited significance

• No permanent colony was established under Elizabeth

  • Roanoke failed twice

  • Gilbert was lost at sea on his return from Newfoundland

  • The "Lost Colony" showed the limits of private financing for large colonial ventures

• Most voyages failed to achieve their stated objectives

  • Neither the North-West nor the North-East Passage was ever found

  • El Dorado was a myth; Raleigh’s 1595 Orinoco expedition found nothing

  • Hawkins’ slave trade ended in disaster at San Juan de Ulúa in 1568

• Privateering became less profitable as the reign went on

  • By the 1590s, the costs of the war with Spain outweighed the gains from raiding

  • The deaths of Drake and Hawkins in 1595–1596 marked the end of the era

• State investment in exploration was minimal throughout

  • Elizabeth relied on private finance rather than committing royal funds

  • This limited the scale and sustainability of what could be achieved

• The real gains of empire came after 1603

  • Jamestown (1607) and New England (1620) were achievements of James I’s reign

  • Elizabethan exploration laid the foundations for later success, but did not produce lasting results during her reign