English Colonial ExpansionSubtitle

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• Study for your vocab quiz.

Beginnings of the British Empire

• Political unrest prevented the English from pursuing overseas empires in the 16th century.

• During the 1600s this changed and by the 1760s, the British became the largest empire in the world at the time.

Early Explorers

• John Cabot: explored the coasts of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and possibly New England giving G.B. its first North American land claims.

• Sir Francis Drake: trader and pirate. Embarked on voyages of exploration. Known for plundering ships of other countries. Was backed financially by Elizabeth I.

• Drake and other pirates secured G.B. seafaring tradition.

Sir Francis Drake

The British in India- the British East India Company

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRQE44FClgQ

Clip Questions1. Which monarch started the East India Company?

2. What was the company’s purpose?

3. How did it end?

The British in America

• Slow to develop colonies in the Americas.

• Spent a lot of time looking for the Northwest Passage, a route that would take them straight to the far east without sailing around Africa or S. America.

• Henry Hudson was one of the first to search for the Passage.

British Settlements

• The “lost colony of Roanoke”(1585): failed

• Jamestown (1607): eventually successful

• Plymouth (1620): successful

• Why come to America?– Religion

– Wealth

– No choice

• By 1700, G.B. would control large territories of land both along the Atlantic and in parts of Canada..

Exit Slip

• Why is the saying “the sun never sets on the British empire” appropriate during the period between 1600-1750?