ALAMY/GETTYIMAGESD
rake, Ralegh, Hawkins:
some of the most famous
names in English ex-
ploration belong to the
Elizabethan period –
yet these individuals
did not make the biggest
contributions to English exploration. They
expanded English geographical horizons,
but they were to a degree re-treading ground
the Spanish had already explored.
Until Elizabeth’s reign, England’s
engagement with exploration was minimal
when compared with every other western
European country. By the time of
Elizabeth’s accession in 1558, the Spanishand Portuguese between them
had explored far into the interior
of the Americas, Africa
and Asia, and founded colonies all
over the world, while even the
French and the Germans had
made persistent attempts at trans-
oceanic colonisation.
By the end of the 16th century,
however, English explorers and their
backers had moved from isolation
to exploitation. British sailors had
become some of the most notorious
long-distance pirates of the period,
circumnavigated the world,
attempted to establish colonies andExploration
was sparked
by a collapse in
European markets
for English goods
Elizabethans and the world / Explorers
THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE
A 17th-century depiction of the Spanish
conquest of central Mexico, completed
long before Elizabeth’s accession; the
queen directs a ship on the frontispiece
of a 1577 treatise on navigation; Sir
Hugh Willoughby, who died when his
ship was trapped in sea ice off Norway