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Chapter I - A New World for England
A New World for England 1521 - 1619
When weather-beaten explorers first ascended the shore of Powhatan's empires they inaugurated a rare experiment in the history of mankind a fresh start in seemingly unlimited territory. The country they founded was to be shaped by both the noblest and most self-serving of motives. Between 1607 and 1760, America was forged from the visions of hardy, wealthy Englishmen, the devotion of religious refugees determined to build an ideal "city upon a hill," and the enforced labor of a quarter of a million enslaved Africans. Those first settlers did not intend to leave behind their familiar European ways life, and in the beginning they tried to preserve their conservative traditions. But as they were soon to learns conditions in the rugged "wilderness communities" necessitated new patterns of living. During the 150 years between the establishment of the first permanent settlement in North America and the American Revolution, these new patterns evolved into singular colonial traditions sufficiently durable and flexible to generate a modern superpower of unequaled strength and ideals. Little could these original voyagers have imagined the chain of events they were beginning or where it would lead in the coming years.
What prompted these first English voyagers to investigate the New World? In 1521 Spaniard Hernando Cortes crushed the Aztec empire in what is now Mexico, inspiring England to colonize the New World in hopes of equaling Spain's dazzling economic and military achievements. England was determined to send colonists to North America to exploit the native population and the natural resources as well as to establish strategic military outposts. Pursuing these aims, in 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh commissioned a fleet of ships to sail for the New World not only to explore prospects for founding a colony but also to satisfy his intense desire, as he put it, for "gold, for praise, for glory." after receiving encouraging messages from the captains of the fleet, Raleigh obtained permission from Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, to send a group of settlers to colonize an area and name it after her.
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