Wikipedia

English overseas possessions

(Redirected fromEnglish colonial empire)
"English Empire" redirects here. For the colonial empire of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, seeBritish Empire.For the Americas in particular, seeBritish colonization of the Americas.For the "empire" of the Plantagenets, seeAngevin Empire.

TheEnglish overseas possessionscomprised a variety of overseas territories that were colonised, conquered, or otherwise acquired by theKingdom of Englandbefore 1707. (In 1707 theActs of Unionmade England part of theKingdom of Great Britain.SeeBritish Empire.)

All English overseas possessions in 1700, shortly before the Acts of Union of 1707

The first English overseas settlements were established inIreland,followed by others inNorth America,Bermuda,and theWest Indies,and bytrading postscalled "factories"in theEast Indies,such asBantam,and in theIndian subcontinent,beginning withSurat.In 1639, a series of English fortresses on the Indian coast was initiated withFort St George.In 1661, the marriage ofKing Charles IItoCatherine of Braganzabrought him as part of herdowrynew possessions which until then had beenPortuguese,includingTangierinNorth AfricaandBombayin India.

In North America,NewfoundlandandVirginiawere the first centres of English colonisation. During the 17th century,Maine,Plymouth,New Hampshire,Salem,Massachusetts Bay,Nova Scotia,Connecticut,New Haven,Maryland,andRhode Island and Providencewere settled. In 1664,New NetherlandandNew Swedenwere taken from the Dutch, becomingNew York,New Jersey,and parts ofDelawareandPennsylvania.

Origins

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A replica ofCabot's ship theMatthew

TheKingdom of Englandis generally dated from the rule ofÆthelstanfrom 927.[1]During the rule of theHouse of Knýtlinga,from 1013 to 1014 and 1016 to 1042, England was part of apersonal unionthat included domains inScandinavia.In 1066,William the Conqueror,Duke of Normandy,conquered England,making the Duchy aCrown landof the English throne. Through the remainder of theMiddle Agesthe kings of England held extensive territories inFrance,based on their history in this Duchy. Under theAngevin Empire,England formed part of a collection of lands in theBritish Islesand France held by thePlantagenetdynasty. The collapse of this dynasty led to theHundred Years' Warbetween England andFrance.At the outset of the war the Kings of England ruled almost all of France, but by the end of it in 1453 only thePale of Calaisremained to them.[2]Calais was eventually lost to the French in 1558. TheChannel Islands,as the remnants of theDuchy of Normandy,retain their link tothe Crownto the present day.

The first English overseas expansion occurred as early as 1169, when theNorman invasion of Irelandbegan to establish English possessions inIreland,with thousands of English and Welsh settlers arriving in Ireland.[3]As a result of this theLordship of Irelandwas claimed for centuries by the English monarch; however, English control mostly was resigned to an area of Ireland known asThe Pale,most of Ireland, large swaths ofMunster,UlsterandConnaughtremained independent of English rule until the Tudor and Stuart period. It was not until the 16th century that the Tudor monarchs of England began to "plant" Protestant settlers in Ireland as part of theplantations of Ireland.[4][5][6][7]These plantations included King's County, nowCounty Offaly,and Queen's County, nowCounty Laois,in 1556.[8]A joint-stock plantation was established in the late 1560s atKerrycurrihynearCork city,on land leased from theEarl of Desmond.[9]In the early 17th century thePlantation of Ulsterbegan, and thousands of Scottish and Northern English colonists were settled in the province ofUlster.[10][page needed]English control of Ireland fluctuated for centuries until Ireland was incorporated into theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Irelandin 1801.

ThevoyagesofChristopher Columbusbegan in 1492, and he sighted land in theWest Indieson 12 October that year. In 1496, excited by the successes in overseas exploration of thePortugueseand theSpanish,King Henry VII of EnglandcommissionedJohn Cabotto lead a voyage to find a route from theAtlanticto theSpice IslandsofAsia,subsequently known as the search for theNorth West Passage.Cabot sailed in 1497, successfully making landfall on the coast ofNewfoundland.There, he believed he had reached Asia and made no attempt to found a permanentcolony.[11]He led another voyage to the Americas the following year, but nothing was heard of him or his ships again.[12]

TheReformationhad made enemies of England and Spain, and in 1562 Elizabeth sanctioned theprivateersHawkinsandDraketo attack Spanish ships off the coast ofWest Africa.[13]Later, as theAnglo-Spanish Warsintensified, Elizabeth approved further raids against Spanish ports in the Americas and against shipping returning to Europe with treasure from theNew World.[14]Meanwhile, the influential writersRichard HakluytandJohn Deewere beginning to press for the establishment of England's own overseas empire. Spain was well established in the Americas, whilePortugalhad built up a network of trading posts and fortresses on the coasts of Africa,Brazil,andChina,and theFrenchhad already begun to settle theSaint Lawrence River,which later becameNew France.[15]

The first English overseas colonies

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The first English overseas colonies started in 1556 with theplantations of Irelandafter theTudor conquest of Ireland.One such overseas joint stock colony was established in the late 1560s, at Kerrycurrihy near Cork city[16]Several people who helped establish colonies in Ireland also later played a part in the early colonisation of North America, particularly a group known as theWest Country men.[17]

The first English colonies overseas in America was made in the last quarter of the 16th century, in thereignofQueen Elizabeth.[18]The 1580s saw the first attempt at permanent English settlements inNorth America,a generation before thePlantation of Ulsterand occurring a little bit after the plantation of Munster. Soon there was an explosion of English colonial activity, driven by men seeking new land, by the pursuit of trade, and by the search for religious freedom. In the 17th century, the destination of most English people making a new life overseas was in theWest Indiesrather than in North America.

Early claims

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Financed by theMuscovy Company,Martin Frobisherset sail on 7 June 1576, fromBlackwall, London,seeking theNorth West Passage.In August 1576, he landed atFrobisher BayonBaffin Islandand this was marked by the firstChurch of Englandservice recorded on North American soil. Frobisher returned to Frobisher Bay in 1577, taking possession of the south side of it in Queen Elizabeth's name. In a third voyage, in 1578, he reached the shores ofGreenlandand also made an unsuccessful attempt at founding a settlement in Frobisher Bay.[19][20]While on the coast of Greenland, he also claimed that for England.[21]

At the same time, between 1577 and 1580,Sir Francis Drakewascircumnavigating the globe.He claimedElizabeth IslandoffCape Hornfor his queen, and on 24 August 1578 claimed another Elizabeth Island, in theStraits of Magellan.[22]In 1579, he landed on the north coast ofCalifornia,claiming the area for Elizabeth as "New Albion".[23]However, these claims were not followed up by settlements.[24]

In 1578, while Drake was away on his circumnavigation, Queen Elizabeth granted a patent for overseas exploration to his half-brotherHumphrey Gilbert,and that year Gilbert sailed for the West Indies to engage in piracy and to establish a colony in North America. However, the expedition was abandoned before the Atlantic had been crossed. In 1583, Gilbert sailed toNewfoundland,where in a formal ceremony he took possession of the harbour ofSt John'stogether with all land within two hundredleaguesto the north and south of it, although he left no settlers behind him. He did not survive the return journey to England.[25][26]

The first overseas settlements

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Re-enactment of English settlers arriving in Virginia, 1607

On 25 March 1584, Queen Elizabeth I grantedSir Walter Raleighacharterfor the colonization of an area ofNorth Americawhich was to be called, in her honour,Virginia.This charter specified that Raleigh had seven years in which to establish a settlement, or else lose his right to do so. Raleigh and Elizabeth intended that the venture should provide riches from the New World and a base from which to sendprivateerson raids against the treasure fleets ofSpain.Raleigh himself never visited North America, although he led expeditions in1595and 1617 to theOrinoco Riverbasin inSouth Americain search of the golden city ofEl Dorado.Instead, he sent others to found theRoanoke Colony,later known as the "Lost Colony".[27]

On 31 December 1600, Elizabeth gave acharterto theEast India Company,under the name "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies".[28]The Company soon established its first trading post in theEast Indies,atBantamon the island ofJava,and others, beginning withSurat,on the coasts of what are nowIndiaandBangladesh.

Most of the new English colonies established in North America and theWest Indies,whether successfully or otherwise, wereproprietarycolonies withProprietors,appointed to found and govern settlements underRoyal chartersgranted to individuals or tojoint stock companies.Early examples of these are theVirginia Company,which created the first successful English overseas settlements atJamestownin 1607 andBermuda,unofficially in 1609 and officially in 1612, itsspin-off,theSomers Isles Company,to which Bermuda (also known as the Somers Isles) was transferred in 1615, and theNewfoundland Companywhich settledCuper's CovenearSt John's, Newfoundlandin 1610. Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts Bay, each incorporated during the early 1600s, werecharter colonies,as was Virginia for a time. They were established throughland patentsissued by the Crown for specifiedtractsof land. In a few instances the charter specified that the colony's territory extended westward to thePacific Ocean.The charter of Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay and Virginia each contained this "sea to sea" provision.

Bermuda,today the oldest-remainingBritish Overseas Territory,was settled and claimed by England as a result of the shipwreck there in 1609 of the Virginia Company's flagshipSea Venture.The town ofSt George's,founded in Bermuda in 1612, remains the oldest continuously-inhabited English settlement in the New World. Some historians state that with its formation predating the conversion of "James Fort" into "Jamestown" in 1619, St George's was actually the first successful town the English established in theNew World.Bermuda and Bermudians have played important, sometimes pivotal, roles in the shaping of the English and British trans-Atlantic empires. These include roles in maritime commerce, settlement of the continent and of the West Indies, and the projection of naval power via the colony'sprivateers,among others.[29][30]

Between 1640 and 1660, theWest Indieswere the destination of more than two-thirds of English emigrants to the New World. By 1650, there were 44,000 English people in the Caribbean, compared to 12,000 on theChesapeakeand 23,000 inNew England.[31]The most substantial English settlement in that period was atBarbados.

In 1660,King Charles IIestablished theRoyal African Company,essentially atrading company dealing in slaves,led by his brotherJames, Duke of York.In 1661, Charles's marriage to thePortugueseprincessCatherine of Braganzabrought him the ports ofTangierin Africa andBombayinIndiaas part of her dowry. Tangier proved very expensive to hold and was abandoned in 1684.[32]

After the Dutch surrender ofFort Amsterdamto English control in 1664, England took over theDutch colonyofNew Netherland,includingNew Amsterdam.Formalized in 1667, this contributed to theSecond Anglo–Dutch War.In 1664, New Netherland was renamed theProvince of New York.At the same time, the English also came to control the formerNew Sweden,in the present-day U.S. state ofDelaware,which had also been a Dutch possession and later became part ofPennsylvania.In 1673, the Dutch regained New Netherland, but they gave it up again under theTreaty of Westminsterof 1674.

Council of Trade and Foreign Plantations

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Main article:Board of Trade

In 1621, following a downturn in overseas trade which had created financial problems for theExchequer,King James instructed hisPrivy Councilto establish anad hoccommittee of inquiry to look into the causes of the decline. This was calledThe Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of all matters relating to Trade and Foreign Plantations.Intended to be a temporary creation, the committee, later called a 'Council', became the origin of theBoard of Tradewhich has had an almost continuous existence since 1621. The Committee quickly took a hand in promoting the more profitable enterprises of the English possessions, and in particular the production oftobaccoandsugar.[33]

The Americas

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List of English possessions in North America

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Captain John Smith,
"Admiral of New England"
Plaque atSt John'smarking
Humphrey Gilbert's landing there, 1583

List of English possessions in the West Indies

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  • Barbados,first visited by an English ship, theOlive Blossom,in 1605,[40]was not settled by England until 1625,[41]soon becoming the third major English settlement in the Americas afterJamestown, Virginia,and the Plymouth Colony.
  • Saint Kittswas settled by the English in 1623, followed by the French in 1625. The English and French united to massacre the localKalinago,pre-empting a Kalinago plan to massacre the Europeans, and then partitioned the island, with the English in the middle and the French at either end. In 1629 a Spanish force seized St Kitts, but the English settlement was rebuilt following the peace between England and Spain in 1630. The island then alternated between English and French control during the 17th and 18th centuries until it became permanently associated with Britain since 1783.
  • Nevis,settled 1628
  • Providence Island colony,settled by theProvidence Island Companyin 1629 andcaptured by Spainin 1641.
  • Montserrat,settled 1632
  • Antigua,settled in 1632 by a group of English colonists fromSaint Kitts
  • The Bahamaswere mostly deserted from 1513 to 1648, when theEleutheran AdventurersleftBermudato settle on the island ofEleuthera.
  • Anguilla,first colonized by English settlers from St Kitts in 1650; the French gained the island in 1666, but under theTreaty of Bredaof 1667 it was returned to England
  • Jamaica,formerly a Spanish possession known as Santiago, it was conquered by the English in 1655.
  • Barbuda,first settled by the Spanish and French, was colonized by the English in 1666.
  • TheCayman Islandswere visited bySir Francis Drakein 1586, who named them. They were largely uninhabited until the 17th century, when they were informally settled by pirates, refugees from theSpanish Inquisition,shipwrecked sailors, and deserters fromOliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica. England gained control of the islands, together with Jamaica, under theTreaty of Madridof 1670.

List of English possessions in Central and South America

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English possessions in India and the East Indies

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Fort St George,Madras,the
first English fortress in India
  • Bantam:The English started to sail to theEast Indiesabout the year 1600, which was the date of the foundation in theCity of Londonof theEast India Company( "the Governour and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies" ) and in 1602 a permanent "factory"was established at Bantam on the island ofJava.[43]At first, the factory was headed by a Chief Factor, from 1617 by a President, from 1630 by Agents, and from 1634 to 1652 by Presidents again. The factory then declined.
  • Surat:The East India Company's traders settled at Surat in 1608, followed by the Dutch in 1617. Surat was the first headquarters town of the East India Company, but in 1687 it transferred its command centre toBombay.
  • Machilipatnam:a trading factory was established here on theCoromandel Coastof India in 1611, at first reporting to Bantam.[44]
  • Run,a spice island in the East Indies. On 25 December 1616,Nathaniel Courthopelanded on Run to defend it against the claims of theDutch East India Companyand the inhabitants acceptedJames Ias sovereign of the island. After four years of siege by the Dutch and the death of Courthope in 1620, the English left. According to theTreaty of Westminsterof 1654, Run should have been returned to England, but was not. After theSecond Anglo-Dutch War,England and the United Provinces agreed to thestatus quo,under which the English keptManhattan,which the Duke of York had occupied in 1664, while in return Run was formally abandoned to the Dutch. In 1665 the English traders were expelled.
  • Fort St George,at Madras (Chennai), was the first English fortress in India, founded in 1639.George Townwas the accompanying civilian settlement.
  • Bombay:On 11 May 1661, the marriage treaty ofKing Charles IIandCatherine of Braganza,daughter ofKing John IV of Portugal,transferred Bombay into the possession of England, as part of Catherine's dowry.[45]However, the Portuguese kept several neighbouring islands. Between 1665 and 1666, the English acquiredMahim,Sion,Dharavi,andWadala.[46]These islands were leased to theEast India Companyin 1668. The population quickly rose from 10,000 in 1661, to 60,000 in 1675.[47]In 1687, the East India Company transferred its headquarters fromSuratto Bombay, and the city eventually became the headquarters of theBombay Presidency.[48]
  • Bencoolenwas an East India Companypepper-trading centre with agarrisonon the coast of the island ofSumatra,established in 1685.
  • Calcuttaon theHooghly RiverinBengalwas settled by the East India Company in 1690.

English possessions in Africa

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English Tangier, 1670
James IslandandFort Gambia

English possessions in Europe

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See also:Angevin Empire

Transformation into British Empire

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The Treaty of Union of 1706, which with effect from 1707 combined England and Scotland into a new sovereign state calledGreat Britain,provided for the subjects of the new state to "have full freedom and intercourse of trade and navigation to and from any port or place within the said united kingdom and the Dominions and Plantations thereunto belonging". While the Treaty of Union also provided for the winding up of theScottish African and Indian Company,it made no such provision for the English companies or colonies. In effect, with the Union they becameBritish colonies.[49]

List of English possessions which are still British Overseas Territories

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Timeline

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See also

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References

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  1. ^Keynes, Simon. "Edward, King of the Anglo-Saxons" in N. J. Higham & D. H. Hill,Edward the Elder 899-924(London: Routledge, 2001), p. 61.
  2. ^Griffiths, Ralph A.King and Country: England and Wales in the Fifteenth Century(2003,ISBN1-8528-5018-3), p. 53
  3. ^Bartlett, Thomas.Ireland: A History(2010,ISBN0-5211-9720-1) p. 40.
  4. ^Falkiner, Caesar Litton (1904). Illustrations of Irish history and topography, mainly of the 17th century. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. p. 117. ISBN 1-144-76601-X.
  5. ^Moody, T. W.; Martin, F. X., eds. (1967). The Course of Irish History. Cork: Mercier Press. p. 370.
  6. ^Ranelagh, John (1994). A Short History of Ireland. Cambridge University Press. p. 36.
  7. ^Edwards, Ruth Dudley; Hourican, Bridget (2005). An Atlas of Irish History. Psychology Press. pp. 33–34.
  8. ^3 & 4 Phil & Mar, c.2 (1556). The Act was repealed in 1962 Archived 11 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ^Lennon, Colm. Sixteenth Century Ireland, the Incomplete Conquest, pp. 211–213
  10. ^Hill, George.The Fall of Irish Chiefs and Clans and the Plantation of Ulster(2004,ISBN0-9401-3442-X)
  11. ^Andrews, Kenneth.Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480–1630(Cambridge University Press, 1984,ISBN0-5212-7698-5) p. 45.
  12. ^Ferguson, Niall.Colossus: The Price of America's Empire(Penguin, 2004, p. 4)
  13. ^Thomas, Hugh.The Slave Trade: the History of the Atlantic Slave Trade(Picador, 1997), pp. 155–158.
  14. ^Ferguson (2004), p. 7.
  15. ^Lloyd, Trevor Owen.The British Empire 1558–1995(Oxford University Press, 1996,ISBN0-1987-3134-5), pp. 4–8.
  16. ^Lennon, pp. 211–213
  17. ^Taylor, Alan(2001).American Colonies, The Settling of North America.Penguin. pp.119,123.ISBN0-1420-0210-0.
  18. ^Canny, Nicholas.The Origins of Empire,The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. I (Oxford University Press, 1998,ISBN0-1992-4676-9), p. 35
  19. ^The Nunavut Voyages of Martin Frobisherat web site of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, accessed 5 August 2011
  20. ^Cooke, Alan (1979) [1966]."Frobisher, Sir Martin".In Brown, George Williams (ed.).Dictionary of Canadian Biography.Vol. I (1000–1700) (online ed.).University of Toronto Press.
  21. ^McDermott, James.Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan privateer(Yale University Press, 2001,ISBN0-3000-8380-7.)p. 190
  22. ^abFletcher, Francis.The World encompassed by Sir Francis Drake(1854 edition) by theHakluyt Society,p. 75.
  23. ^Dell'Osso, John (October 12, 2016)."Drakes Bay National Historic Landmark Dedication".NPS.gov.National Park Service.RetrievedJanuary 23,2019.
  24. ^Sugden, John.Sir Francis Drake(Barrie & Jenkins, 1990,ISBN0-7126-2038-9), p. 118.
  25. ^Andrews (1984), pp. 188-189
  26. ^Quinn, David B. (1979) [1966]."Gilbert, Sir Humphrey".In Brown, George Williams (ed.).Dictionary of Canadian Biography.Vol. I (1000–1700) (online ed.).University of Toronto Press.
  27. ^Quinn, David B.Set fair for Roanoke: voyages and colonies, 1584–1606(1985)
  28. ^The register of letters, &c: of the governour and company of merchants of London trading into the East Indies, 1600–1619(B. Quaritch, 1893), p. 3.
  29. ^Delgado, Sally J. (2015)."Reviewed Work: In the Eye of All Trade by Michael J. Jarvis".Caribbean Studies.43(2): 296–299.doi:10.1353/crb.2015.0030.ISBN978-0-8078-3321-6.S2CID152211704.Retrieved2020-06-13.
  30. ^Shorto, Lt. Col. Gavin.The Bermudian:Bermuda in the Privateering BusinessArchived2011-07-16 at theWayback Machine
  31. ^Taylor, Alan.Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction(2012), p. 78
  32. ^abWreglesworth, John.Tangier: England's Forgotten Colony (1661-1684),p. 6
  33. ^Encyclopædia Britannica:a new survey of universal knowledge(Volume 10, 1963), p. 583
  34. ^Canny, Nicholas.The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I,2001,ISBN0-1992-4676-9.
  35. ^"Early Settlement Schemes".Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Site Project.Memorial University of Newfoundland. 1998.Retrieved2010-01-09.
  36. ^O'Neill, Paul.The Oldest City: The Story of St. John's, Newfoundland,2003,ISBN0-9730-2712-6.
  37. ^"William Vaughan and New Cambriol".Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Site Project.Memorial University of Newfoundland.Retrieved2010-01-09.
  38. ^Permanent Settlement at Avalon,Colony of Avalon Foundation, Revised March 2002, accessed 6 August 2011
  39. ^Doyle, John Andrew.English Colonies in America: The Puritan colonies(1889) chapter 8,p. 220
  40. ^Schomburg, Sir Robert.History of Barbados(2012 edition), p. 258
  41. ^Thwaites, Reuben Gold.The Colonies, 1492-1750(1927),p. 245
  42. ^Canny, p. 71
  43. ^East India Company,The Register of Letters &c. of the Governour and Company of Merchants of London Trading Into the East Indies, 1600-1619(B. Quaritch, 1893), pp. lxxiv, 33
  44. ^Ramaswami, N. S.Fort St. George, Madras(Madras, 1980; Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology, No. 49)
  45. ^"Catherine of Bragança (1638–1705)".BBC.Retrieved5 November2008.
  46. ^The Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island(1978) p. 54
  47. ^David, M. D.History of Bombay, 1661–1708(1973) p. 410
  48. ^Carsten, F. L.The New Cambridge Modern History V (The ascendancy of France 1648–88)(Cambridge University Press, 1961,ISBN978-0-5210-4544-5), p. 427
  49. ^Treaty of Union of the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and Englandat scotshistoryonline.co.uk, accessed 2 August 2011

Further reading

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  • Adams, James Truslow,The Founding of New England(1921), to 1690
  • Andrews, Charles M.,The Colonial Period of American History(1934–1938), the standard political overview to 1700
  • Andrews, Charles M.,Colonial Self-Government, 1652–1689(1904)full text online
  • Bayly, C. A., ed.,Atlas of the British Empire(1989), survey by scholars, heavily illustrated
  • Black, Jeremy,The British Seaborne Empire(2004)
  • Crouch, Nathaniel.The English Empire in America: or a Prospect of His Majesties Dominions in the West-Indies(London, 1685).
  • Dalziel, Nigel,The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire(2006), 144 pp
  • Doyle, John Andrew,English Colonies in America: Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas(1882)online edition
  • Doyle, John Andrew,English Colonies in America: The Puritan colonies(1889)online edition
  • Ferguson, Niall,Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power(2002)
  • Fishkin, Rebecca Love,English Colonies in America(2008)
  • Foley, Arthur,The Early English Colonies(Sadler Phillips, 2010)
  • Gipson, Lawrence.The British Empire Before the American Revolution(1936–1970), comprehensive scholarly overview
    • Morris, Richard B., "The Spacious Empire of Lawrence Henry Gipson",William and Mary QuarterlyVol. 24, No. 2 (Apr., 1967), pp. 169–189JSTOR1920835
  • Green, William A., "Caribbean Historiography, 1600–1900: The Recent Tide",Journal of Interdisciplinary HistoryVol. 7, No. 3 (Winter, 1977), pp. 509–530.JSTOR202579
  • Greene, Jack P.,Peripheries & Center: Constitutional Development in the Extended Polities of the British Empire & the United States, 1607–1788(1986), 274 pages.
  • James, Lawrence,The Rise and Fall of the British Empire(1997)
  • Jernegan, Marcus Wilson,The American Colonies, 1492–1750(1959)
  • Koot, Christian J.,Empire at the Periphery: British Colonists, Anglo-Dutch Trade, and the Development of the British Atlantic, 1621–1713(2011)
  • Knorr, Klaus E.,British Colonial Theories 1570–1850(1944)
  • Louis, William, Roger (general editor),The Oxford History of the British Empire,(1998–1999), vol. 1 "The Origins of Empire" ed. Nicholas Canny (1998)
  • McDermott, James,Martin Frobisher: Elizabethan privateer(Yale University Press, 2001).
  • Marshall, P. J., ed.,The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire(1996)
  • Parker, Lewis K.,English Colonies in the Americas(2003)
  • Payne, Edward John,Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen to America(vol. 1, 1893; vol. 2, 1900)
  • Payne, Edward John,History of the New World called America(vol. 1, 1892; vol. 2, 1899)
  • Quinn, David B.,Set Fair for Roanoke: voyages and colonies, 1584–1606(1985)
  • Rose, J. Holland, A. P. Newton and E. A. Benians, gen. eds.,The Cambridge History of the British Empire,(1929–1961); vol 1: "The Old Empire from the Beginnings to 1783"
  • Sheridan, Richard B., "The Plantation Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, 1625–1775",Caribbean StudiesVol. 9, No. 3 (Oct., 1969), pp. 5–25.JSTOR25612146
  • Sitwell, Sidney Mary,Growth of the English Colonies(new ed. 2010)
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