Payne, pp. 33-47. CHAPTER XIII COLONIAL EXPANSION Books for Consultation SPECIAL AUTHORITIES Seeley, Expansion of England, British Policy. Lyall, British Dominion in India. Egerton, A Short History of British Colonial Policy. Lyall, Hastings. Macaulay, Essays on Chatham, Clive, and Hastings. Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe. Mahan, Influence of Sea Power upon History. IMAGINATIVE LITERATURE Churchill, Richard Carvel. Thackeray, The Virginians. Colonial Undertakings. The discovery of America and of the new route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope revealed new worlds in the east and in the west to the maritime enterprise of Europe. It was the work of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to open up the vast realms inviting conquest and colonization in America. India remained almost undisturbed until the eighteenth century, while the exploration and conquest of Africa are contemporary achievements. Spain was the first of the seafaring nations of western Europe to enter this new field of enterprise, and she took Character of Early Colonial Enterprises 409 possession of the richest regions, Mexico, Peru, and the West Indies. Portugal, more enterprising but less fortunate, pushed her interests in the East Indies, in West Africa, and in Brazil. Holland followed in the wake of Spain and Portugal, building up an empire from their losses. Getting a foothold in the East Indies, she established trade relations with the Spice Islands of the Indian Archipelago. At the Cape of Good Hope, moreover, and along the Hudson River, she planted flourishing colonies. France entered later upon the quest, but secured extensive domains on the western continent. Early in the seventeenth century her adventurous mariners explored the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, and founded the settlements of Acadia and Canada. Later they descended the Mississippi, and so on to the Gulf of Mexico, thereby establishing exclusive right to the great river valleys of North America. The English Colonies. Spain, in quest of gold, had seized the southern lands, the French, attracted by the fur trade and fisheries, turned northward, England took what was left. It is worthy of note that England was the last of the great European states to enter upon colonial enterprise, in spite of the fact that her attempts to become a continental power ended with the fifteenth century. Through the voyages and explorations of the Cabots in 1497 and 1498 the English secured preemptive right to the North American coast from Cape Breton to Albemarle Sound. But England was backward and unfortunate in asserting her claims. It was not until the reign of Elizabeth Payne, that attempts were made to secure a foothold in the New pp. 82, 83. World, and then the colonization schemes of Frobisher and Gilbert and Raleigh all ended in failure. At the close of the sixteenth century England had no possessions outside of Europe. Green, pp. 505, 506. Character of the Early Colonial Enterprises. The begin- Green, nings of permanent occupation and colonization belong to PP. 506-503, the reigns of the first two Stuarts. Many of the West Indian Islands - Barbadoes, Antigua, and Montserrat - then came 513. Payne, pp. 53-55, 63, 64. into English possession. The settlement of Virginia was followed speedily by the planting of colonies to the north, and by the middle of the seventeenth century England could boast of a long line of settlements fringing the Atlantic seaboard. As a whole the colonial enterprises of England at this time were of exceptional character. They were not the result of a general migrating tendency in the English people, nor of a definite colonizing policy on the part of the government. The first two Stuarts were far too busily occupied in upholding the royal prerogative in England to concern themselves with schemes of conquest and settlement. They were, however, responsible for the religious and political difficulties which resulted in a steady stream of emigration to America during the years between 1620 and the outbreak of the Civil War. That this movement was due to special causes is shown in the fact that with 1640 it ceased to be of importance. It was not until after the close of the Napoleonic wars that Englishmen again began in large numbers to seek homes in the new countries beyond the seas. The Beginnings of an Imperial Policy. - Brief though it was, the rule of Cromwell marks a turning-point in English policy. Now, for the first time, the government concerned itself with building up a commercial and colonial empire. The foundations of England's maritime importance were laid in the triumphs of the Commonwealth's navy, under Blake. Henceforth her strength was on the sea, and her wars were usually naval. Moreover, England, hitherto content with seizing territory occupied by natives only, began to make war upon the colonies of the other European powers. Colonial Rivalry and the Duel with Holland. -The rivals of England in the middle of the seventeenth century were Spain and Holland. Spain was still the first colonial power of the world, but decay had set in and Spanish greatness was waning. Holland, on the contrary, was at the height of her power, doing the carrying trade of the world, and building up her empire at the expense of Spain and Portu The Duel between England and France 411 gal. England, under Cromwell, made successful war upon both the Spanish and the Dutch. The Spanish settlements were attacked, and, although an attempt to seize San Domingo failed, Jamaica passed into the possession of the Jamaica, 1655. English. The basis of Holland's power, her commercial supremacy, received a twofold blow in the achievements of Source-Book, the English navy and in the Navigation Acts of the Long PP. 260-262. Parliament. The example of the Commonwealth was followed under Charles II. Trade rivalry with Holland continued, and the Navigation Law was renewed (1661). In 1665 war broke out. On the sea the two powers were still well matched, and England met with alternate success and defeat. By the Peace of Breda which closed the war (1667), England gave up her claim to Pularoon, thus losing her hold upon the Spice Islands of the East; but in return she was secured in her possession of St. Helena, off the coast of Africa, valuable as a calling station, and what was of greater importance, she fell heir to the Dutch colonies in America. After the founding of settlements in the Carolinas and Pennsylvania. the English possessions stretched in an unbroken line for nearly a thousand miles along the Atlantic coast of North America. No other power could boast so extensive a group of colonies peopled by men of the home race. In accordance with the terms of the treaty of Dover (1670), the war with Holland was renewed, but the feeling was becoming general that it was a mistake to make war on the Dutch. Holland was a waning, England a growing power. England ceased to fear the rivalry of the Dutch, Holland needed the aid of the English. The old dislike was swallowed up in the new and greater fear of France. The duel between the two northern sea-powers may be said to end with the peace of 1674. Henceforth the two nations drew together, united by a common dread of the French. The Duel between England and France. The close of the Thirty Years' War left France dominant on the Continent. Under Louis XIV France became the most powerful coun Peace of Breda, 1667. |