Motivations for Exploring

Map of the Spanish colonial empire

In the 12th century, Spanish Muslims, known as Moors, conquered the city of Mérida, Spain. According to legend, seven Catholic bishops fled the city in order to protect the relics of the church. They went to a faraway land across the sea known as Antilia and each of the bishops founded a city. The cities mined jewels and became so rich that they were made entirely of gold. At least, that's what the legend said…

Beginning in the 1400s, explorers from just about every seafaring European nation sought the legendary cities of gold. These explorations were paid for by rich European merchants or by monarchs with their own motives; they wanted to catch up with Spain. An economic policy called mercantilism dominated the era, in which nations competed for the most favorable balance of trade. The goal was to amass the most silver and gold.

You've already learned that Spain had an extensive colonial empire, mostly in Central and South America, that was making them wealthy under mercantilism. It wasn't just the resources in the colonies that made Spain rich. By dominating South America, Spain had control of the only known western route to Asia, at the southern tip of the continent. So the other European merchants and monarchs really wanted to find a fast, safe, western route to Asia that completely avoided Spanish territory. This goal became known as the Northwest Passage.

John Cabot

In 1497, just five years after Columbus's first voyage, England sent John Cabot exploring for this Northwest Passage. He did set foot in a 'New Found Land' (soon called Newfoundland, but also rumored to be the legendary island of Antilia). But English investors weren't interested since he didn't find what they were looking for. And England had too much turmoil in the 16th century to pay much attention to colonies. So the task of exploration was left to other countries.

French Exploration

Sailing for France, Giovanni da Verrazzano made three trips, exploring most of the North American coastline, as well as South America and many Caribbean islands. He didn't find the Northwest Passage or any cities of gold, but his knowledge, combined with that of a Portuguese explorer a few years earlier, was instrumental in creating a widely distributed outline map of the east coast of the continent. Unfortunately, much of Verrazzano's work was overshadowed by other men at the same time.

Jacques Cartier was also sent by the king of France to find a northwest passage and to discover certain islands and lands where it is said that a great quantity of gold and other precious things are to be found. Upon Cartier's return from his second exploration of Canada, he brought an Indian chief back home with him to tell the king about a city full of gold and gemstones, where the natives were blonde-haired. Cartier set off on a third trip in 1541 to establish a North American settlement that would act as a base to find the city of gold. He returned to France with a shipload of what he thought were gold and diamonds. They turned out to be pyrite - Fool's Gold - and quartz. The settlement was abandoned two years later.

The French tried again several times to colonize North America, but failed due to disease, weather, conflict with Indians or with other European powers. Their most infamous failure may have been at Charlesfort in 1562. Their leader left to resupply the colony, but he was arrested on returning to France. All but one of the abandoned colonists decided to build an open boat and set sail for home, guided only by stars and intuition. When the refugees ran out of food, they drew lots and murdered the loser to eat him. The survivors made it across the Atlantic Ocean and were rescued near England. After many other failed attempts, the French finally turned most of their attention to the Caribbean islands.

Sir Francis Drake circled the world by ship in 1580

Sir Francis Drake

While France and other European nations were working hard to supplant Spain as the world's colonial superpower, the English had been mostly content to simply steal gold from Spanish ships. And in the end, these English pirates, nicknamed 'Sea Dogs,' finally turned the tide of world history in favor of England.

It was one of these Sea Dogs, Sir Francis Drake, that first sailed around the world for England. Queen Elizabeth had sent Drake on a mission to raid Spanish ports on the western coast of the new world. After capturing millions of dollars' worth of plunder, and burying it as far north as San Francisco, Drake knew his tiny fleet of six ships would certainly be destroyed if he tried to retrace his steps back home. His only option was to head west across the Pacific and hope for the best.

He arrived back in England in 1580. What Francis Drake managed to carry back to England, with only one surviving ship and a third of his men, was still twice the Queen's income for a year. This bounty led Queen Elizabeth to consider establishing a permanent New World colony of her own, as a base for launching even more raids.

Roanoke

After financing a settlement in Newfoundland, which his half-brother failed to establish, Sea Dog Sir Walter Raleigh tried again farther south in 1585. He financed a group of settlers to a small island called Roanoke off the coast of North Carolina. After conflict with the natives, in which they beheaded the Indian chief, the colonists caught a ride back to England with Francis Drake who was going home after raiding some Caribbean islands.

The fleeing colonists just missed the supply shipment sent to them from England. A detachment of soldiers from this supply ship stayed behind to guard the Queen's claim to the land. Then, Raleigh arranged for a second colony attempt nearby. Sending 150 people with Governor John White, the new settlers were supposed to meet up with the guards who had remained from the supply ship. But the new settlers found no soldiers, just one bleached out skeleton.