Elizabethan England: Walter Raleigh And Virginia

Question 1

When did Elizabeth give Raleigh a grant to explore and settle lands in North America?

Answer 1

1584

Question 2

How many failed attempts to colonise North America had there been, when were they and who was it led by?

what was the significance of these failed attempts?

Answer 2

• there had been two failed attempts (1578 and 1583) both led by Sir Humfrey Gilbert.
• this made any future projects attempting the same thing even harder

Question 3

What did Raleigh need to do?

Answer 3

he needed to raise huge amounts of money and encourage potential English colonists to leave their homes and settle in a land many knew little about

Question 4

Why didn’t Walter Raleigh lead the colonists to Virginia?

Answer 4

because Elizabeth I didn’t want to lose one her favourite courtiers whilst there was still concerns over Anglo-Spanish relations

Question 5

How was Walter Raleigh significant in the attempt to colonise Virginia?
• investigated
• promoted
• appointed
• blueprint

Answer 5

• investigated, organised and raised funds for the establishment of an English colony in Virginia
• promoted the voyage and persuaded people to leave England and settle in Virginia
• appointed the governor of Virginia, who ruled in his place
• developed a “blueprint” that was to be used in later English colonisations

Question 6

when did Raleigh send a fact-finding expedition to Virginia and explain what happened?
• What were the explorers able to barter

Answer 6

In 1584, the explorers who went were able to barter tin utensils and metal knives for game, fish, nuts and variety of fruits and vegetables

Question 7

What is the significance of the fact-finding expedition?
• what rumours had already been said
• What were the accounts brought back and what did this persuade people to think and do

Answer 7

• they brought back accounts to England which described this part of North America as paradise which helped persuade a group of English men to leave their home and made the dangerous journey to colonise
• they were convinced they were going to make fortunes in Virginia
• this was important because the first expedition had not been successful and travellers were spreading rumours of fantastical monsters and brutal savages in America

Question 8

How were the first English colonists able to make contact with the Indians?

Answer 8

• 1584: two native Americans were brought back to England
• Thomas Harriot learned their language and taught them English
• he was able to make an English - Algonquian dictionary

Question 9

Why would there be plenty of revenue of the English government if they colonised Virginia?
• Native Americans bartering
• what work would be provided
• exotic materials

Answer 9

• Native Americans would barter things for simple, cheap English goods like woollen cloth
• the colony would provide work for English cloth makers and merchants
• the colony could provide exotic materials such as gold and tobacco that could be brought back to England

Question 10

Why did the queen refuse to fund the new colony and what did she decide to do instead?

Answer 10

• because she had other financial concerns like the threat from Spain
• Elizabeth gave him a ship and gunpowder worth $400 instead. This royal backing gave the project prestige

Question 11

How did Raleigh encourage merchants to invest in the new colony?

Answer 11

promised investors that he would take any Spanish ships that came across, including their cargoes

Question 12

How did Raleigh make others believe the new colony could work?

Answer 12

by investing a lot of his own money into the venture

Question 13

When did Raleigh have all the resources he needs?

Answer 13

1585

Question 14

How many people were in Raleigh’s colony and what type of people were in the colony?

Answer 14

• only had 107 - all men, rather than the 300 he had hoped for
• half were soldiers - also landowners, farmers, skilled craftsmen and Thomas
  Harriot

Question 15

What did the colonists take along with him?

Answer 15

• food, and salt for preserving it for the voyage and afterwards
• Freshwater for the voyage
• tools and equipment, including ploughs and seeds - to farm and build forts and homes
• weapons to protect themselves from attack

Question 16

The importance of colonising Virginia (4)

Answer 16

• provided England with a base from which to attack Spanish colonies in the new world
• England hoped to rival Spain’s overseas empire and undermine its influence in the New world
• Trade: explorers and colonists would be able to barter ironware, woollen cloth and hunting knives in return for animal skins, gold and other commodities that could be sold for profit
• England would be less dependant on Spain, France, Italy for imported goods if it could be produced in Virginia

Question 17

What caused the colonists to have a lack of food?

Answer 17

• First colonists left England too late to reach Virginia in time to plant crops
• The climate was hot and humid and mosquitoes everywhere, because of this, food rotted quickly
• the Tiger became damaged. A breach in the hall let in seawater, ruining the food it was carrying, including seed for planting

Question 18

Explain how lack of food caused the colonisation of Virginia to fail?

Answer 18

• unable to provide for themselves, the first colonists abandoned the colony in 1586
• the second “lost” colony may also have struggled, to feed itself, making the colonists dependent on local Indian tribes

Question 19

What caused poor leadership in the colonisation of Virginia?

Answer 19

• Leader of the first expedition, Richard Grenville, was hot-headed and did not get on with Ralph Lane who was the governor of the colony
• Leader of the second expedition, John White, abandoned the colony in 1587

Question 20

Explain how poor leadership caused the colonisation of Virginia to fail?

Answer 20

• poor leadership meant that those involved in both expeditions had little direction or purpose
• this may explain the subsequent decision to abandon the first colony in 1586, as well as the fact that the second colony was found abandoned in 1590

Question 21

Explain how lack of skills and experience caused the colonisation of Virginia to fail?

Answer 21

• A lack of stonemasons meant that a stone fort was never built, leaving the colony vulnerable to Indian attack

Question 22

What caused a lack of skills and experience in the colonisation of Virginia?

Answer 22

• Merchants and landowners lacked the physical capacity for manual work
• Merchants had come in the hope of becoming rich quickly rather than being prepared to put in the necessary groundwork for establishing a working colony
• Soldiers could defend the expedition but lacked the ability to farm the land and were also ill-disciplined

Question 23

What caused native American resistance?

Answer 23

• In 1586, Algonquian chief Winginia led an attack on the colonists as he was angered by the diseases that they had brought
• Other Indian tribes suspicious of the English and angered by their demands for food, also attacked between 1585 and 1586

Question 24

Explain how Native American attacks and experience caused the colonisation of Virginia to fail?

Answer 24

• Winginia’s attack was beaten off but led to a crisis within the first expedition, forcing the colonists to abandon Roanoke
• the second expedition could have been wiped out by an Indian attack led by Chief Powhatan

Question 25

Explain how the war with Spain caused the colonisation of Virginia to fail?

Answer 25

• From 1585, England was effectively at war with Spain
• the threat from the Armada meant that few ships were available to visit or resupply the colonists
• the colonists were increasingly isolated and vulnerable to attack

Question 26

What was the significance of the attempted colonisation of Virginia?

Answer 26

• colony was a failure but served as a template for future settlements, including Jamestown in 1607

• By the end of the 17th century, 13 colonies each with their own system of government had been established along with the eastern seaboard of the new world

Question 27

Virginia would provide a base to attack Spain settlement and colonies. What would be the consequences of this?

Answer 27

this would provide considerable loot and booty and would demonstrate to the Indian tribes that the English were a better alternative to the Spanish as rulers