Aug 31 Building a maritime empire

Introduction

I. Motivations

A) silver and spices

B) Anglo-Spanish rivalry
Richard Hakluyt

C) opportunities
economic/ social
religious
create new godly societies (e.g. MA, MD)
freedom of conscience (e.g. RI, PA)

II. Methods

encourage trade
set up plantations

mercantilism [see Levine, Ch 2]
-grant monopolies to trading companies
English East India Company (1600)
trading post empire in Asia

-reserve trade for English ships and enact high tariffs on foreign goods
Navigation Acts

-deploy the navy to protect trade

III. Settlement empire

A. North America
"Virginia"
Sir Walter Ralegh and the Lost Colony
Virginia Company
1630s migration
Jamestown under crown rule in 1625

B. Caribbean
staple exports
indentured labor

William Buckland's Indenture

IV. Characteristics

unplanned
decentralized
diverse

Sept 2 The empire becomes British

I. context

Cromwell's Western Design
Jamaica (1655)

new world of trade: 15 joint stock companies in 1688; 100+ in 1696

II. the Irish in the empire

pre-1650s migration
Cromwellian conquest
transportation
Montserrat
Navigation Acts

III. the Scots in the empire

Company to Trade with Africa and the Indies (1695); Darien colony [link]
William III and the Act of Union
Britishness

1642-1649	Civil War
1649-1660	interregnum: Cromwell
1660	restoration
1660-1685	Charles II
1685-1688	James II
1688	Glorious Rev
1689-1702	William and Mary