Elizabeth - Exploration of The New World

Question 1

Reasons Elizabeth wanted to explore the New World

Answer 1

Expanding trade
New technology
Ship design

Question 2

How did Expanding trade lead Elizabeth to explore

Answer 2

English merchants needed to look for more new trading oppportunities, as conflict w Spain & in Netherlands had hit traditional wool & cloth trade hard. As eng relied upon its exports of cloth so much, it was vital to find new markets & new products to sell

Question 3

How did New technology lead Elizabeth to explore

Answer 3

Navigation: was becoming increasingly more precise. Eg. By 1584, English mathematician Thomas Harriot worked out simpler way of using sun to calculate true sailing directions of a ship - made voyages safer, more direct & faster

Quadranrs & astrolabes had been increasingly used to make more accurate calculations ant ship’s position using position of stars - made voyages more accurate

Maps: improved nagivation & records of voyages contirbuted to more accurate maps. In 1569, the Mercator map was developed by Cartographer, Mercator in which he used parallel & evenly spaced lines of longitude & latitude to place lands more accurately on map. Sailors now had more realistic picture of world when plotting voyages

Question 4

How did Ship design lead Elizabeth to explore

Answer 4

Galleons developed in 16th cent were ships much larger & stable than trading ships. Enabled more supplies to be taken on board, making longer journeys possible

Galleons also used different sail types on thensame vessel, making them easier to manoeuvre - more accurate voyages

Galleons had improved fire power. Important as piracy was common so ships had to defend themselves.

Question 5

When was Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe

Answer 5

Dec 1577 - Sep 1580

Question 6

Why did Drake circumnaviagte the globe

Answer 6

• wantwd to raid Spanish colonies in Pacific. Relations w Spain were deteriorating at this time & this appeared to have been upmost in the queen’s mind
• great profits to be made particularly from journey into the Americas. Drake’s treasure haul estimated at £500mil today

Question 7

Consequences/significance of Drake’s circumnavigation

Answer 7

• 2nd crew in history to achieve such a feat - great boost to English morale & established reputation of English ships & sailors as beings among the finest in world. This was important at a time of growing fears that Spanish could inavde Eng at any time
• encouraged explorations of other English sailors - gathered great deal of info abt Americas to be shared
• Drake attacking Spain’s American colonies angered Philip II - one more event deteriorating Anglo-Spanish relations