The 1st British Empire (1497-1763)

The 1st British Empire starting from 1497(5years after Cristopher Columbus discovered
America) to 1763 (the end of the 7-year war).
The British sent explorer to get some land there
From that period, we had Henry the 8th, who encouraged Explorers like John Cabot to
go and see other places and do as Columbus did
The first location was Canada
The 1st British colonies were formed in North America
In 1585(under the Elizabethan era), Sir Walter Raleigh organized a small settlement in
Roanak in Virginia, but it failed they couldn’t live there
The Virginia Company of London was a joint-stock company (‫شركة مساهمة‬
) chartered by King James I in 1606 to establish a colony in North America.
Such a venture allowed the Crown to reap the benefits of colonization—natural
resources, new markets for English goods, leverage against the Spanish—without
bearing the costs
The revival of Virginia company in 1607 (the company of tobacco) established a
permanent colony at Jamestown in Virginia
The East India Company was an English company created in 1600, formed for the
exploitation of trade (spices, tea, indigo) with East and Southeast Asia and India
The East India Company began to build up a small empire of trading posts ( ‫المحطة‬
‫ )التجارية‬in India.
 The English people did not think of colonizing the place, they just wanted a place to
Trade
The 1st English colonies in the Caribbean were founded in 1620s.
Colonization of St Kitts began in 1623 and then expended to islands including
Barbados
English planters learned how to grow sugar cane from the Dutch, who had learned
from their colonies in Brazil
Slave trade:
The Royal Africa Company: is an English company for trading slaves
The production of sugar was getting extremely huge, so English needed a lot of
workers who are much cheaper, and here where enslave labor began.
The slave trade started with the Spanish, and then they will be conquered by the
English
British exchanged slaves with some manufactured goods.
Slave labor made Britain incredibly wealthy, it provided slave owners with unpaid
labor to farm expensive items like sugar, tobacco and cotton, which they can sell for
huge profit
 Profits from this trade made merchants rich, as well as providing the capital for many
enterprises of the industrial revolution.
The 1st voyage being loaded with slaves in 1562(Elizabethan period) with Sir John
Hawkins. But later on, they will compete with the Spanish until there will be a war,
called the 7-year war.
 The 7-year war (1756-1763): The war was primarily fought over contested claims
between the British and French over the land of the Ohio.
The 7 Years War ended with the signing of Paris treaty in February 1763.
France lost all claims to Canada and gave Louisiana to Spain, while Britain received
Spanish Florida, Upper Canada, and various French holdings overseas.
The treaty ensured the colonial and maritime supremacy of Britain and strengthened
the 13 American colonies by removing their European rivals to the north and the
south.
British gained the slave trade monopoly (the one who deliver slaves to British Empire
and the colonies of Spain)
Laws of trade:
What was the cause of the Navigation Acts?
The rise of the Dutch carrying trade, which threatened to drive English shipping from
the seas, was the immediate cause for the Navigation Act of 1651, and the
major cause of the First Dutch war.
The Navigation Acts (1651, 1660) were acts of Parliament intended to promote the
self-sufficiency of the British Empire by restricting colonial trade to England and
decreasing dependence on foreign imported goods.
The Navigation Act of 1651, aimed primarily at the Dutch, required all trade between
England and the colonies to be carried in English ships
Act of 1660 continued the policies set forth in the 1651 act and enumerated certain
articles-sugar, tobacco, cotton, wool, indigo, and ginger-that were to be shipped only
to England or an English province.
Imported goods from European continent had to pass through England, where taxes
must be paid on the way to the colonies.
Colonial merchants had to purchase their manufactured goods from England
England obliged merchants to buy tobacco from the American colonies only
 The purpose was to regulate the trade of the English Empire and to enable the
England to gain profit from its colonies implanted overseas
The American war of Independence (1775-1783): The American Revolution
It started for various reasons:
1. The Laws of trade: although American colonies were given the priority to have
tobacco from them, they were not satisfied, they wanted to trade
with other countries not only England
2. When the 7-year war ended in 1763, it also ended the French threat that was
near the 13 colonies, they feared that they will invade the 13 colony, with the
defeat of French and leaving the place, the American saw no reason for
maintaining a British army on the coast.
3. The American were paying taxes to the British parliament with no member in
the parliament representing them, which lead to taxation without
representation