Mary  (r. 1553-1558)

1553    plantation of Laois and Offaly counties in Ireland

1555    earliest regular English voyages to Guinea begin

Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603)

1564    John Hawkings begins slaving voyages

1576    Martin Frobisher attempts mining expedition on Baffin Island

1583    Sir Humphrey Gilbert fails in his attempt to set up a colony in Newfoundland

1585    Sir Walter Raleigh sets up the colony of Virginia on Roanoke Island (present-day North Carolina)

1586    plantation of Munster

1587    chartered English trade voyage to Senegambia region

1590    Roanoke settlers lost

1600    English East India charter

James I (r. 1603-1625)

1606    Virginia (the whole N. American coast) divided into two with control of the south going to London-based interests

        and control of the north going to Plymouth-based interests

1607    Sir John Davis initiates Sierra Leone redwood trade

        first permanent settlement at Jamestown, Virginia

        English colony at Sagadahoc, Maine

1609    plantation of Ulster

1610    first English settlement in Newfoundland

1612    settlement of Bermuda

1613    grant of trading rights, Surat

1618    First Guinea Company chartered

1620s   steady stream of immigrants to Jamestown

1620    establishment of Plymouth Plantation; Mayflower Compact

1624    establishment of St. Christopher colony

Charles I (r. 1625-1649)

1625    Virginia made a Royal Colony

1627    Barbados colony established

1629    Charles grants Carolina to Sir Robert Heath

1630    establishment of the Massachusetts Bay colony

        great migration of English settlers to New England begins

1633    establishment of Gold Coast factories

1634    first Connecticut towns established

        Lord Baltimore founds St Mary's city, Maryland

1636    Roger Williams founds Providence, Rhode Island

1639    grant of Madras to English

1640    sharp decline in price of tobacco

1641    outbreak of the Irish rebellion in Ulster

        beginning of English slave trade to Barbados

Cromwell

1651    first Navigation Act

1655-6  Western Design on Spanish possessions in the Caribbean

1655    English capture Jamaica from Spain