*Editor’s note: The following is the next article in a historical series Gant News will be running in honor of the America 250 Celebrations*
So you want to build an empire? You and everyone else in Europe during the Middle Ages.
You could try conquering your neighbors…that will go over well. Especially if you’re an island with limited resources and people…What is an ambitious monarch to do?
You do what everyone else is doing…sail west, young man.
If you are of a certain age, you remember the rhyme, “In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” and you probably learned that he had a bright idea of sailing West to go East and Queen Isabella of Spain, along with King Ferdinand, pawned her jewels to fund the trip.
Then Columbus sailed his three ships (remember? Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria) across the Atlantic and bumped into a land mass he thought was India at first and then was surprised to find there was a whole continent between him and Asia. Voila! America!
Well, not quite.
Now we know that the first Europeans to settle on the continent we now call North America were Norse. After invading and settling what we now call England to Ireland, they hopped across to Iceland and Greenland and kept going, eventually to Newfoundland (they called it Vinland) around 1000 A.D., but they didn’t stay.
Therefore, Europeans knew there was more out there than a lot of water, and they wanted to establish a foothold on whatever lands they found and lay claim to whatever treasure was there.
Something everyone in Europe was looking for was a passage to the East that was faster and safer than sailing south around the horn of Africa or travelling overland.
And what made them desperate for this passage? It wasn’t gold…it was spices.
As any cook can tell you, the older a spice is, the less potent and less flavorful it becomes. And at that time, the only people who could afford spices like cinnamon or turmeric were the rich and the royal, and they wanted the freshest they could acquire.
And they wanted gold. Of course they wanted gold.
Columbus did sail, under the sponsorship of Castile (part of Spain) in the name of said monarchs who were, incidentally, the parents of Catherine of Aragon, who would eventually marry Henry VIII of England. (Henry’s father, Henry VII, was getting into the exploration game also,)
Spain and Portugal led the way with France and England soon following. There was quite a bit of activity, with efforts to find a northwest passage, fisheries established in Newfoundland and each country trying to get ahead of the others by fair means or foul.
It was almost a century after Columbus before England became serious about colonization when Sir Walter Raleigh established the first permanent English settlement, Roanoke Colony in 1585. It was evacuated a year later, then reestablished under John White in 1587 and by 1590 was found abandoned and became known as the Lost Colony.
The colony, located on an island in what is now Dare County, Nouth Carolina, should not be confused with the Roanoke of Virginia today. And I do it when I drive through. Every. Single. Time.
Virginia, a name coined by Raleigh partially for Elizabeth I, the “virgin queen” for a while referred to England’s entire North American territory, from the 34th parallel to the 45th parallel (roughly from Cape Fear, N.C. to Acadia, Canada).
Then, with Elizabeth’s successor James I and VI (England/Scotland) in power, Jamestowne was founded in 1607 along the James River and became the colonial capital in 1616. Three years later the first legislative assembly in the new world, the first labor strike and the first recorded arrival of African slaves in Virgina all occurred.
It was 1620 when the next item often remembered occurred, the arrival of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. Who were they? What did they want?
We will hit on that, and the establishment of some of the other colonies next time. And after that…taxes, taxes, TAXES!
Recommendations:
For history of the Vikings, the Noiser network has several history podcasts to check out, including “Real Vikings” and “A Short History of…”.
An interesting book on exploration in the time of Elizabeth I: “In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire” by Laurence Bergreen.
If you have some time, take a trip to Williamsburg, Va. Spend some time as it is close to Jamestown’s sites, Yorktown, Monticello and other places of colonial interest. One vision…of the world.
So you want to build an empire? You and everyone else in Europe during the Middle Ages.
You could try conquering your neighbors…that will go over well. Especially if you’re an island with limited resources and people… What is an ambitious monarch to do?
You do what everyone else is doing… sail west, young man.
If you are of a certain age, you remember the rhyme, “In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” and you probably learned that he had a bright idea of sailing west to go east and Queen Isabella of Spain, along with King Ferdinand, pawned her jewels to fund the trip.
Then Columbus sailed his three ships (remember? Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria) across the Atlantic and bumped into a landmass he thought was India at first and then was surprised to find there was a whole continent between him and Asia. Voila! America!
Well, not quite.
Now we know that the first Europeans to settle on the continent we now call North America were Norse. After invading and settling what we now call England to Ireland, they hopped across to Iceland and Greenland and kept going, eventually to Newfoundland (they called it Vinland) around A.D. 1000, but they didn’t stay.
Therefore, Europeans knew there was more out there than a lot of water, and they wanted to establish a foothold on whatever lands they found and lay claim to whatever treasure was there.
Something everyone in Europe was looking for was a passage to the East that was faster and safer than sailing south around the horn of Africa or traveling overland.
And what made them desperate for this passage? It wasn’t gold… it was spices.
As any cook can tell you, the older a spice is, the less potent and less flavorful it becomes. And at that time, the only people who could afford spices like cinnamon or turmeric were the rich and the royal, and they wanted the freshest they could acquire.
And they wanted gold. Of course they wanted gold.
Columbus did sail, under the sponsorship of Castile (part of Spain) in the name of said monarchs who were, incidentally, the parents of Catherine of Aragon, who would eventually marry Henry VIII of England. (Henry’s father, Henry VII, was getting into the exploration game also.)
Spain and Portugal led the way with France and England soon following. There was quite a bit of activity, with efforts to find a northwest passage, fisheries established in Newfoundland and each country trying to get ahead of the others by fair means or foul.
It was almost a century after Columbus before England became serious about colonization when Sir Walter Raleigh established the first permanent English settlement, Roanoke Colony in 1585. It was evacuated a year later, then reestablished under John White in 1587 and by 1590 was found abandoned and became known as the Lost Colony.
The colony, located on an island in what is now Dare County, North Carolina, should not be confused with the Roanoke of Virginia today. And I do it when I drive through. Every. Single. Time.
Virginia, a name coined by Raleigh partially for Elizabeth I, the “virgin queen” for a while referred to England’s entire North American territory, from the 34th parallel to the 45th parallel (roughly from Cape Fear, North Carolina, to Acadia, Canada).
Then, with Elizabeth’s successor James I and VI (England/Scotland) in power, Jamestowne was founded in 1607 along the James River and became the colonial capital in 1616. Three years later the first legislative assembly in the new world, the first labor strike and the first recorded arrival of African slaves in Virginia all occurred.
It was 1620 when the next item often remembered occurred, the arrival of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. Who were they? What did they want?
We will hit on that, and the establishment of some of the other colonies next time. And after that… taxes, taxes, TAXES!
Recommendations:
For history of the Vikings, the Noiser network has several history podcasts to check out, including “Real Vikings” and “A Short History of…”.
An interesting book on exploration in the time of Elizabeth I: “In Search of a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire” by Laurence Bergreen.
If you have some time, take a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia. Spend some time as it is close to Jamestowne’s sites, Yorktown, Monticello and other places of colonial interest.
