God, Gold, &
Glory
An Introduction to Empire
Building

Egyptian Empire 1479 BC

Greek Empire 323 BC

Roman Empire 271 AD

Muslim Empire 622 - 650

FYI Ottoman Empire

What Motivates Empires
The 3 G’s
God
religious fervor
converting natives
Gold
expand trade
profit
Glory
adventure
power
national pride

The 1st British Empire 1763

Late 19th Century

English Explorers
1497-Henry VIII commissions Italian
John Cabot to explore the coast of
Newfoundland
Giving English the claim to the
Americas

English Colonial Expansion
Beginnings of the
British Empire
John Cabot
1497-98

Sea Dogs (Elizabethan Pirates)
English sea captains under
Queen Elizabeth I
explorers &
adventurers
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Walter Raleigh

Piracy
1500’s English sea captains harass the
Portuguese and Spanish—become
Privateers or Pirates
1580’s Francis Drake-1st Englishman to
circumnavigate the globe was also a
pirate
1550-1850 the English crown gave
permits for pirates to operate on high
seas.

Sea dogs
 Elizabeth I
commissioned
Drake to sail
into the
Caribbean
and raid all of
the Spanish
settlements
along the
coastline

The Spanish Armada was assembled by
Spain to end British piracy but failed.
Pirates were celebrated as heroes
the Spanish Armada considered as an
instrument of Catholic repression.

Territories
Beginnings of the
British Empire
Begins in 1600s (17th century)
English navy becomes a major
force
England becomes leader in
world trade
English Colonial Expansion

Early settlements in America
1606- The Virginia Co. of London—sent
expeditions to America to search for
gold and silver
The following year the Co. founded the
1st permanent English settlement-
Jamestown
A group of religious dissenters -Pilgrims
founded a second colony Plymouth—
present day Massachusetts

The British in America
England was slow to establish colonies in America.
English Colonial Expansion
Jamestown 1607

English Colonial Expansion
Plymouth 1620

British East India Company 1600-1708
• English company created in 1600 to exploit trade with
East and Southeast Asia and India.
•Started as a monopolistic trading body
• Became involved in politics and acted as an agent of
British imperialism in India

English Colonial Expansion
Settled on the island of Jamaica (1655)
Bahamas (1648), and Barbados (1627)
1640-English introduce sugarcane
plantations to the island
Worked by slave labor
Made 3x’s more profit than tobacco

Slave Trade
In the 1600’s the colonies of the
America’s based their economies on
agricultural products that required
intensive labor
Sugar, tobacco, coffee, and mining

Triangular Trade
 Ships sailed in the triangle formed by Europe,
Africa, and the Americas
 In European ports ships carried: manufactured
goods (knives, swords, guns, clothes, rum)
 West Africa: traded enslaved Africans bought
from local rulers
 America: Enslaved Africans sold and money
used to purchase sugar, cotton, and tobacco
 Ships returned to Europe to sell goods-
completing the triangle

Sugar
• In colonies, British soon discovered
furs, tobacco, fish and potatoes and
mainly SUGAR
• Sugar made colonisation worthwhile.
• However, it required labor: Slaves.

An Empire of Trade
 British now drank tea with sugar.
 Tea brought from China by the East India
Company, who paid for it with opium grown
in India.
 Sugar grown in the British West Indies and
Southern States of America on plantations
owned by British emigrants and worked by
slaves
 Slaves bought by British merchants in Africa
and paid for with British manufactured
products – such as cooking pots, or guns.

In 1686 alone British colonies shipped
goods worth over £1 million to London.
 Exports to the colonies consisted
mainly of woollen textiles;
Imports included sugar, and other
addictive products such as tobacco and
coffee.

Coming next
Mercantilism Regulations
Colonists’ Resistance
Independance war