Editing Elizabethan era (section)

===Colonising the New World===
{{Main|English colonial empire}}
The discoveries of Christopher Columbus electrified all of Western Europe, especially maritime powers like England. King Henry VII commissioned [[John Cabot]] to lead a voyage to find a northern route to the [[Maluku Islands|Spice Islands]] of Asia; this began the search for the [[North West Passage]]. Cabot sailed in 1497 and reached [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Andrews |first=Kenneth |title=Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480–1630 |date=1984 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-27698-5 |pages=45}}</ref> He led another voyage to the Americas the following year, but nothing was heard of him or his ships again.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ferguson |first=Niall |title=Colossus: The Price of America's Empire |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2004 |isbn=0143034790 |page=4 |author-link=Niall Ferguson}}</ref>

In 1562 Elizabeth sent [[privateer]]s also named '[[Elizabethan Sea Dogs]]'; these included the likes of [[John Hawkins (naval commander)|Hawkins]] and [[Francis Drake|Drake]] to seize booty from Spanish and Portuguese ships off the coast of [[West Africa]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thomas |first=Hugh |title=The Slave Trade: the History of the Atlantic Slave Trade |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1997 |isbn=0684810638 |pages=155–158}}</ref> When the [[Anglo-Spanish War (1585)|Anglo-Spanish Wars]] intensified after 1585, Elizabeth approved further raids against Spanish ports in the Americas and shipping returning to Europe with treasure.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ferguson|2004|p=7}}</ref> Meanwhile, the influential writers [[Richard Hakluyt]] and [[John Dee]] were beginning to press for the establishment of England's own overseas empire. Spain was well established in the Americas, while Portugal, in union with Spain from 1580, had an ambitious global empire in Africa, Asia, and South America. France was exploring North America.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lloyd |first=Trevor Owen |title=The British Empire 1558–1995 |date=1994 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-873134-5 |pages=4–8}}</ref> England was stimulated to create its own colonies, with an emphasis on the [[West Indies]] rather than in North America.

[[Martin Frobisher]] landed at [[Frobisher Bay]] on [[Baffin Island]] in August 1576; He returned in 1577, claiming it in Queen Elizabeth's name, and a third voyage tried but failed to find a settlement in Frobisher Bay.<ref>{{cite DCB |first=Alan |last=Cooke |title=Frobisher, Sir Martin |volume=1|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/frobisher_martin_1E.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McDermott |first=James |title=Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan privateer |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-08380-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/martinfrobishere0000mcde/page/190 190]}}</ref>

[[File:1590 or later Marcus Gheeraerts, Sir Francis Drake Buckland Abbey, Devon.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Francis Drake]]]]
From 1577 to 1580, [[Francis Drake]] [[Francis Drake's Circumnavigation|circumnavigated]] the globe. Combined with his daring raids against the Spanish and his great victory over them at [[Singeing the King of Spain's Beard|Cádiz in 1587]], he became a famous hero<ref>{{Cite journal |first=John |last=Cummins |year=1996 |title='That golden knight': Drake and his reputation |journal=History Today |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=14–21}}; {{Cite book |last=Wathen |first=Bruce |title=Sir Francis Drake: The Construction of a Hero |date=2009 |publisher=D.S.Brewer |isbn=978-1843841869}}</ref>—his exploits are still celebrated—but England did not follow up on his claims.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sugden |first=John |title=Sir Francis Drake |date=1990 |publisher=Random House |isbn=1448129508 |page=118}}</ref> In 1583, [[Humphrey Gilbert]] sailed to Newfoundland, taking possession of the harbour of [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's]] together with all land within two hundred [[League (unit)|leagues]] to the north and south of it.<ref>{{cite DCB |title=Gilbert, Sir Humphrey |first=David B. |last=Quinn |volume=1 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/gilbert_humphrey_1E.html}}</ref>

In 1584, the queen granted [[Walter Raleigh]] a charter for the colonisation of [[Virginia Colony|Virginia]]; it was named in her honour. Raleigh and Elizabeth sought both immediate riches and a base for privateers to raid the Spanish treasure fleets. Raleigh sent others to found the [[Roanoke Colony]]; it remains a mystery why the settlers all disappeared.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Quinn |first=David B. |title=Set fair for Roanoke: voyages and colonies, 1584–1606 |date=1985 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press Books |isbn=0807841234 |ol=2840495M}}</ref> In 1600, the queen chartered the [[East India Company]] in an attempt to break the Spanish and Portuguese monopoly of far Eastern trade.<ref name="Wernham">{{Cite book |last=Wernham |first=R.B |title=The Return of the Armadas: The Last Years of the Elizabethan Wars Against Spain 1595–1603 |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-19-820443-5 |location=Oxford |pages=333–334}}</ref> It established trading posts, which in later centuries evolved into [[British India]], on the coasts of what is now India and [[Bangladesh]]. Larger scale colonisation to [[North America]] began shortly after Elizabeth's death.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Andrews |first=Kenneth R. |title=Trade, Plunder, and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480–1630 |date=1985 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521276985}}</ref>