Virginia Colony – Part two (Lecture Notes)

Context: A Late & Uncertain English Entrance

England is the last major European power to pursue New-World colonies. Early efforts are timid and, according to the instructor’s metaphor, “Las Vegas oddsmakers” would have bet against them. While Spain arrives “in full force,” the English creep in slowly.

Demographic Pressure

• Europe and the Americas each hold roughly 70,000,00070{,}000{,}000 people (≈ 1500), meaning land and resources are scarce on both sides of the Atlantic.

Pan-European Rivalry after 1500

• All nations compete for finite resources; pressure intensifies once the New World’s potential wealth becomes obvious.
• Spain claims all of North America, yet mainly occupies Florida, Texas, Mexico, the Caribbean, and parts of South America.
• England’s first paperwork claim: John Cabot’s voyage (Canada, 14971497). England, however, lacks funds, ships, and a standing army to follow up.

Spain vs England: Key Structural Contrasts

  1. Political
    • Spain = absolute monarchy (king/queen are the law).
    • England = limited monarchy since Magna Carta (signed 12151215); nobles share power, esp. over taxation.

  2. Economic
    • Spain: classic feudalism—few landowners, mass peasants.
    • England: still hierarchical but sporting a budding middle class (artisans + small freeholders).

  3. Religious
    • Spain remains staunchly Catholic.
    • England breaks away during the Protestant Reformation—starting under Henry VIII, deepening under Elizabeth I.

Indirect Money-Making: State-Sanctioned Piracy

• Henry VIII thinks open colonization is “too risky & too poor” a bet; but merchants crave New-World profits.
• Solution: plunder Spain without formally fighting her.
– Instructor’s pop-culture shorthand: “Think Johnny Depp – Pirates of the Caribbean.”
• Geography: Spanish galleons haul Caribbean sugar, tobacco, Mexican/Andean silver & gold across the Atlantic.
• English privateers (state-licensed pirates) attack these ships, seize cargo, and even raid Caribbean colonies.
– Low cost, high return; justified in Protestant rhetoric as a holy war against Catholicism.

Quiet English Presence: The North Atlantic Fishery

• Since Cabot, English fishers frequent the Grand Banks—some of the world’s richest cod waters.
• Routine: Sail, catch cod, erect temporary shoreline camps, salt/dry fish, return to England.
• Side effects:
– Exploratory mapping; sporadic trade & skirmish with coastal tribes.
– No permanent bases yet; numbers too small for conquest.

Internal English Transformations (Early–Mid 1500s)

New motivations for colonization arise from domestic upheaval.

The Enclosure Movement

• Feudal-style estates are restructured for wool. Steps:

  1. Noble knocks down fences between peasant strips.

  2. Property becomes one giant field.

  3. Peasants evicted; only a skeleton crew tends elite sheep breeds (famous fine English wool).
    • Consequences: swelling ranks of landless, jobless men and women wandering into cities (London, Manchester, etc.).

Inflation Shock

• Multiple cash infusions—privateering spoils, cod trade, wool exports—spur massive price rises.
• Simplified price example: \1 \rightarrow \22 per loaf of bread.
• Urban poor can’t keep up → crime, theft, prostitution, alcoholism, and fears of social collapse.

An Intermediate Target: Ireland

• Spain is still too strong; England chooses Northern Ireland (close, Catholic, and considered a potential Spanish ally).
• 1560s conquest under Elizabeth I: troops use logic similar to Spanish just-war theory—resistance justifies brutality.
• Outcome by ≈ 1565−15701565{-}1570:
– Tens or hundreds of thousands of Irish die.
– English nobles receive confiscated lands, attempt to recreate feudal hierarchy (English aristocracy atop Irish peasants).
• Success emboldens the Crown and provides a template for plantation colonies.

First North-American Colony Attempt: Roanoke (“Virginia”)

• Region named for the “Virgin Queen” Elizabeth I (though she had many lovers).

Key Personalities

– Sir Walter Raleigh & Sir Humphrey Gilbert—two favored “boyfriends” of Elizabeth.

Financing Model

– Crown refuses to fund (echo of Henry VIII’s caution). Raleigh & Gilbert supply private capital.
– Crew: \approx 100$–$150 settlers.

Timeline

  1. 15851585: First expedition—build shelters, plant corn; seems promising.

  2. Multiple resupply runs; Gilbert dies in a shipwreck on return voyage.

  3. 1585–1588: Anglo-Spanish European war diverts Raleigh; no supplies reach colony.

  4. 15881588: War ends; Raleigh sails to Roanoke → finds nothing.

The “Lost Colony” Mystery

• Remains: destroyed building foundations, no crops, no people.
• Only clue: the word “Croatoan” carved into a tree.
• Competing Theories

  1. Survivors relocated inland with the Croatoan tribe.

  2. Colony massacred or enslaved by Croatoans.

  3. Recent academic favorite: wiped out by a hurricane (area slammed every 3–4 yrs).
    • Rumors of “light-skinned natives” persisted; no proof ever surfaced.

Psychological & Financial Fallout

• Raleigh loses his fortune; Gilbert is dead.
• Investors conclude New-World colonies are too dangerous and too expensive.
• Result: roughly 2020-year hiatus (≈ 1588–1606) in serious English colonization projects.

Ethical & Philosophical Undercurrents

• “Might makes right” ideology—from Irish wars to pirate raids—foreshadows English attitudes toward Indigenous peoples.
• Protestant-Catholic animosity frames theft and conquest as moral crusade.
• Socio-economic restructuring (enclosure + inflation) reveals how domestic crises can fuel overseas expansionism.

Looking Forward

The lecture ends at 16001600 with England poised, but still hesitating. The next installment will cover the founding of Jamestown.