Elizabeth I– r. 1558-1603 45 year reign Protestant daughter of Anne Boleyn

1. Elizabeth I– r. 1558-1603 • 45 year reign • Protestant daughter of Anne Boleyn • Restored Protestant religion to England • Known as the “virgin queen” or “Gloriana” or “Good Queen Bess.” • Had been jailed by Queen Mary during the reign of the Catholic queen. • Released and crowned queen of England at age 25 in 1558. She would rule as her father Henry VIII would have wanted (even if she was a woman) • Strong • Powerful • Dominant • She would make England the most powerful nation in Europe.

5. Elizabeth dealt skillfully with foreign problems—especially issues with Catholic Spain. • King of Spain Philip II wanted to marry her as he had married her sister. Elizabeth said no— • As she would say no to all suitors to marriage. • She knew she could / would never relinquish power to any husband/ king. • She could have feared an armed struggle among aristocratic factions if she married someone favorable to the court • She most certainly would have lost money and independence as all of the estates and incomes Elizabeth inherited from her father, Henry VIII, were only hers until she wed

6. She dealt with a plot to overthrow her government by Mary, Queen of Scots—she had her jailed and later executed. • She dealt skillfully with parliament—negotiating more power for the monarchy. • Elizabeth encouraged exploration of the newly discovered North American continent for settlement by English citizens. • Spain was also interested in colonization and especially in extracting gold and silver from their South American colonies. • English ships would harass Spanish ships on their way back across the Atlantic Ocean and take the gold, silver, jewels back to England. • Elizabeth would turn a blind eye and claim she knew nothing. Although she took a portion of the gold and jewels for the English government.

7. Philip II of Spain in 1587 made plans to invade and take over England—in retribution for attacks in the Caribbean, because he wanted England to return to Catholicism, because he claimed a right to the throne as Mary’s husband. • In 1588 the Spanish Armada of 130 ships made its way across the English channel to invade England. • They were met with 150 English ships ready to protect and defend their homeland. The English ships were more maneuverable and better equipped. The English sailors knew the coastline better. The Spanish were defeated

8. . • This would be the (next to) last time any nation tried to invade England. • Elizabeth encouraged her troops with a notable speech, known as the Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, in which she famously declared, "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a King.’ • She died in 1603. Succeeded by her nephew James VI of Scotland who would rule as James I of England.

9. Age of Exploration 1450-1650 • Advances in geographic knowledge, technology allowed for exploration beyond Europe’s shores • Political centralization in Spain, England, and France allowed for available money and resources for exploration. • Colonization and settlement in Africa, Asia, North and South America • Technology • Ships of lighter design, better maneuverability • Better sails to capture the winds • Compass, devices to figure out latitude and longitude • Sea charts, sky charts • Mounting of cannon on ships

12. Portugal – • Prince Henry the Navigator founded the school of navigation and exploration that would set Portugal to be the first European nation to set sail around the globe. • Explore the African coastline; search for gold; for trading posts—money and profit the driving motivation. • 1487 Bartolomeo Diaz rounded Cape Horn in South Africa to the east coast of African continent • 1498 Vasco da Gama reached India via the same route— • Safer, easier route to Asian continent than the land caravan route. • Brings ships full of luxury products from Asia to Europe—sell at enormous profit

13. Spain • Reconquista era in Spanish history came to an end with the entire Iberian peninsula free from Islamic control. • 1469—Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille married and united the two main regions of Spain into one nation. • By 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella willing to invest in overseas exploration • Christopher Columbus needed financing— He was an Italian explorer who in looking at maps of earlier explorations believed one could reach India and the rest of the Asian continent by sailing West across the Atlantic Ocean. A distance he estimated at about 2000 (Italian) miles.

14. The Spanish monarchs, desperate for a competitive edge over other European countries in trade with the East Indies, agreed to finance Columbus on the promise he would bring back riches. • He set sail with a crew of 90 in the ships the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. They sailed for 33 days—hunger and need for water making the crew desperate for land. • Columbus was wrong in his calculations. The Asian continent from Europe across the Atlantic is not just 2000 miles—it is 24,000 miles. It’s a good thing then that… • Sighted land in what we now know is the Caribbean Sea of the coast of North America. • Columbus, not knowing of the existence of the American continents, believed he was on one of the islands off the coast of Asia. • He had really discovered a “new world.”

16. He named the native people of the area Indians—for the Indies (the East Indies or the area around Indonesia today)—although he was wrong in his geography—the native people of America (for right or wrong) have been called Indians ever since. Columbus also did not find the exotic products of the Asian continent as expected. He did find other goods—tobacco, sugar cane, woods, vegetables– that would eventually become important export crops. But not the gold, silver, ivory, satins he or Spanish monarchs expected.

17. Columbus made 4 voyages to this ‘new world’—1492-1506 --he insisted it was Asia all his life—he never understood the scale of his discovery. He suffered tremendous bad luck and hardships. Columbus’ name is also attached to the modern interpretation of the Age of Exploration as the Age of Exploitation and enslavement as it is his voyages that first introduced European nations to the potential of the new continents of North and South America.

18. 1519-1521 Ferdinand Magellan is credited with the first circumnavigation of the globe—as the captain of the ships that began the voyage. He was actually killed in the Philippines and his first officer completed the voyage in command.

19. 1519– Spanish sailors, lured by stories of gold and silver, took to exploring the South American continent. • Hernan(do) Cortes, a minor Spanish nobleman and fortune seeker, took off from the Caribbean island base of the Spanish with 555 men, 17 horses, 10 cannon and a few ships –to find out the truth about these stories of cities of Gold. • He landed in Mexico. Sunk the ships so the men could not go back. Made allies of some of the tribal groups. And conquered the large and powerful and wealthy Aztec empire. The city of gold was true—it was the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. • He entered using the story that he was a god whom the natives must obey. He tricked the Aztec leader (Montezuma) and defeated his army in battle. • This began the Spanish conquest of the much of the South American continent.

21. In 1531 Francisco Pizarro, another Spanish conquistador, took the second largest new world empire by force. He conquered the Inca people of Peru. • There the Spanish found silver. They began mining operations and used the native laborers as slaves. • It is estimated that between the years 1500 to 1600 the population of the native people of central and south america went from 20-30 million to less than 3 million because of European disease (dysentery, smallpox, plague, diptheria) and the brutal slave labor in the mines and fields.

22. Spain set up a colonial government in the Americas. • They began to import African peoples to replace the native South American laborers as they died off. This began the age of African slavery in the Americas. • The Spanish government grew rich off not only the gold and silver but other crops as welltobacco, sugar, coffee all brought in money as Europeans became addicted.

23. Spanish also began missionary work in the Americas to convert the natives to Roman Catholicism • Bartolomeo de las Casas –a Jesuit monk and teacher is very famous as first an advocate of forced conversion and later a supporter of better treatment and humanity for the native peoples. He was among the first to try to investigate and understand native cultures and languages.

24. Spain would soon have competition from the English government in the New World. • Elizabeth and other English monarch wanted some of the riches in crops and territory • Prey on Spanish ships leading to events like the Spanish Armada. • English explorer Sir Francis Drake would in 1577 conduct his own circumnavigation of the globe. • North American settlement began for England as early as 1580s as they sent exploratory expeditions to the coastline of N. America around was is today the state of N. Carolina—the story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island has become legend. • The first successful English settlement was in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia (named for Elizabeth I) and later in 1620 with the Puritans landing in Plymouth, MA and setting up the Massachusetts Bay colony.

25. The English found riches in land, sugar, rice, tobacco, coffee, fish, fur, potatoes, corn • European governments profited from exploration and exploitation • Governments subsidized expeditions expecting to make huge profits. • Steady rise in prices in European markets for goods • Increase in banking activities, circulation of money, • Speculation in stocks, joint stock companies • The business oriented middle class profited and prospered. • A new, more modern age had begun in European history.