5.2.1

Early Settlement

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Discovering North America

Parts of North America were the first places to be colonised successfully by the British, and Britain came to control thirteen colonies along the east coast.

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How did it begin?

  • By the end of the 15th century, Europeans were discovering new lands in parts of the world they had not previously known had existed.
  • Spain and Portugal were at the forefront of this age of exploration and discovery, being the first to discover Central and South America.
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English exploration

  • At this point, England could not compete with its European neighbours.
  • But at the start of the 17th century, investment in England’s navy and increased royal interest in exploration and discovery meant that England began to establish colonies overseas.
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Raleigh’s ventures in the Americas

  • Walter Raleigh (an English explorer) was responsible for establishing the first (unsuccessful) English colony in North America in 1584.
  • He established a colony along the east coast which he named Virginia (after the Virgin Queen Elizabeth).
  • To that colony, he sent a group of English settlers to establish a settlement called Roanoke.
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Roanoke

  • But the settlement mysteriously disappeared and when an expedition travelled to Roanoke from England a few years later, there was no sign of the colony.
  • Raleigh also set his sights on the great riches that he believed were available in the Americas in El Dorado (the ‘City of Gold’).
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Failure of Raleigh

  • Although Raleigh is remembered as a great explorer at the beginning of England’s age of exploration, he failed to establish a successful settlement in the Americas.

Jump to other topics

1The Medieval World: 450-1450 AD

1.1Anglo-Saxon England

1.2The Contest for the English Throne

1.3Conquering the Holy Land, 10-96-1396 AD

1.4King John

1.5The Magna Carta & Parliament

1.6The Black Death

2Worldviews

3The Empire of Mali

4The Renaissance & Reformations, 1500-1598 AD

5The British Empire, 1583-1960 AD

6The Peasants' Revolt

7Religion in the Middle Ages

8Slavery, 1619-1833 AD

9The English Civil War, 1642-1660

10The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1840

11US Independence, 1775-1783

12The French Revolution, 1789-1815

13The British Empire, 1857–1930

14Suffrage

15World War 1, 1914-1918

16The Inter-War Years, 1919-1939

17World War 2, 1939-1945

18The Cold War, 1947-1962

19Civil Rights in the USA, 1954-1975

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