The First British Empire: Colonization and Sea Supremacy

Ireland

: The situation was very similar to Scotland one’s. Problems started in 1689 when James II counted with support in France, so a battle against William of Orange took place; it was the Battle of Boyne that ended with William’s victory.

It was a period of colonization and England used the colonies to obtain benefits. All of that is going to be known as the First British Empire. The 18^th century was a period of tremendous change. One thing that we need to do is to explain how things stand outside the British Isles.

For that we have to go back to the year 1588, which is the year of the Great Armada. That is an important year because this is the moment when England started the gradual rise for the power of the sea supremacy. There were two nations fighting: England and Holland.

In the first half of the 17^th century, Holland became a new rival. England undertook some efforts:

1.Establishment of private companies: This is very visible since the age of Elizabeth. They traded with different areas of the world. Some of the companies created were: Muscovy Company which traded with Moscow, another company was the Levant Company which traded with the East, and also the East India Company which directed all the efforts to trade in India. Later on India became an English colony. There were a number of investors establishing commercial stations in India, the most important was Madrag.

2.Colonies: they differ from private companies. We are talking of settlers who create colonies which were divided in different categories:

The first colonies would go under the label of tobacco, and referring to colonies established on the east coast of the USA, as for example the colony of Virginia. James I prohibited the cultivation of tobacco in England so Virginia become a monopoly of tobacco. Tobacco was taken to England dry but then they added water, so they earned a lot of money because the weight was much higher. They were there thanks to promotional literature: pamphlets, books, etc. Virginia came to an end in the year 1622, when we have the IndianWars. This put an end to this colonial effort. However, a lot of money was made
Religious Colonies: religion was the main factor in inspiring them. We have settlers escaping persecution at home, we have religious refugees. Here, we find two religions: Puritanism-Puritans settled, for example, in Massachusetts, with the Pilgrim Fathers-and Catholicism-settled, for example, in Maryland.These colonies depended on tobacco too, but the main factor was religion.
 Plantations: the difference between a colony and a plantation is that in the second one there is a need of labour force. These colonies depended on a massive labour work. The solution to that problem was slavery. The star product of plantations was sugar and precisely because this was the central product. These plantations are going to be concentrated on the area of the Caribbean Sea, in places like St. Kitts, West Indies or Barbados.