Expansion of British Power

By the beginning of the seventeenth century, Spain dominated Mexico and Central and South America with the exception of Portuguese Brazil. In the late part of the seventeenth century, Spain's two great rivals, Great Britain and France, began establishing their own colonies in North America. They wanted to reap the benefits that Spain had experienced in the New World like finding gold and silver.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century there were no permanent English colonies in the New World. A handful of traders and fishermen had set up some make-shift villages along the northern New England coast; men eager to make money in the trapping or fishing market ventured to the New World to take advantage of the virgin water and land.

Sailing to the New World and setting up a permanent colony was no easy task. The dangers that people experienced when traveling the long distance across the ocean frightened many newcomers to the continent. By the end of the 1500's, several of England and France's colonies collapsed.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh made attempts to set up colonies in Newfoundland and Roanoke, but both failed at establishing permanent settlements. One of the most fascinating stories in early colonial history is that of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. Sir Walter Raleigh hired John White to lead a group of settlers there that included woman and children. White sailed