Editing British Empire (section)

== Origins (1497–1583) ==
[[File:Matthew-BristolHarbour-Aug2004.jpg|thumb|A replica of the ''[[Matthew (1497 ship)|Matthew]]'', [[John Cabot]]'s ship used for his second voyage to the [[New World]] in 1497]]
The foundations of the British Empire were laid when [[Kingdom of England|England]] and [[Kingdom of Scotland|Scotland]] were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King [[Henry VII of England]], following the successes of [[Spanish Empire|Spain]] and [[Portuguese Empire|Portugal]] in overseas exploration, commissioned [[John Cabot]] to lead an expedition to discover a [[Northwest Passage|northwest passage]] to Asia via the North Atlantic.{{Sfn|Ferguson|2002|p=3}} Cabot sailed in 1497, five years after the [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|first voyage of Christopher Columbus]], and made landfall on the coast of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]]. He believed he had reached Asia,{{Sfn|Andrews|1984|p=45}} and there was no attempt to found a colony. Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but did not return; it is unknown what happened to his ships.{{Sfn|Ferguson|2002|p=4}}

No further attempts to establish English colonies in the Americas were made until well into the [[Elizabethan era|reign of Queen Elizabeth&nbsp;I]], during the last decades of the 16th century.{{Sfn|Canny|1998|p=35}} In the meantime, [[Henry VIII]]'s 1533 [[Statute in Restraint of Appeals]] had declared "that this realm of England is an Empire".{{Sfn|Koebner|1953|pp=29–52}} The [[English Reformation|Protestant Reformation]] turned [[England]] and [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] Spain into implacable enemies.{{Sfn|Ferguson|2002|p=3}} In 1562, Elizabeth&nbsp;I encouraged the [[privateer]]s [[John Hawkins (naval commander)|John Hawkins]] and [[Francis Drake]] to engage in [[Slave raiding|slave-raiding attacks]] against Spanish and Portuguese ships off the coast of [[West Africa]]{{Sfn|Thomas|1997|pp=155–158}} with the aim of establishing an [[Atlantic slave trade]]. This effort was rebuffed and later, as the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585)|Anglo-Spanish Wars]] intensified, [[Elizabeth I|Elizabeth&nbsp;I]] gave her blessing to further privateering raids against Spanish ports in the Americas and shipping that was returning across the Atlantic, [[Spanish treasure fleet|laden with treasure]] from the [[New World]].{{Sfn|Ferguson|2002|p=7}} At the same time, influential writers such as [[Richard Hakluyt]] and [[John Dee]] (who was the first to use the term "British Empire"){{Sfn|Canny|1998|p=62}} were beginning to press for the establishment of England's own empire. By this time, Spain had become the dominant power in the Americas and was exploring the Pacific Ocean, Portugal had established trading posts and forts from the coasts of [[Africa]] and [[Brazil]] to [[China]], and France had begun to settle the [[Saint Lawrence River]] area, later to become [[New France]].{{Sfn|Lloyd|1996|pp=4–8}}

Although England tended to trail behind Portugal, Spain, and France in establishing overseas colonies, it carried out its first modern colonisation, referred to as the [[plantations of Ireland|Munster Plantations]], in 16th century [[Ireland]] by settling it with English and Welsh Protestant settlers. England had already colonised part of the country following the [[Norman invasion of Ireland]] in 1169.<ref>{{Harvnb|Canny|1998|p=7}}; {{Harvnb|Kenny|2006|p=5}}.</ref> Several people who helped establish the Munster plantations later played a part in the early colonisation of North America, particularly a group known as the [[West Country Men]].{{Sfn|Taylor|2001|pp=119, 123}}