32 A HISTORY OF AMERICA IN 100 MAPS
Through most of the sixteenth century, Spain was
the most powerful nation on earth and the dominant
force in the New World, but in the second half of
the century England began to assert itself in North
America. This more expansive view of England’s
place in America was forcefully articulated by John
Dee (1527–1608), a mathematical geographer who
educated some of the most influential men of the
day, including Richard Hakluyt, Martin Frobisher,
and Walter Raleigh. Dee also corresponded with
the pivotal mapmakers Abraham Ortelius and
Gerard Mercator, and by 1570 he was one of the
era’s most important geographers. His training in
mathematics and geography made him a key adviser
to almost all English navigators well into the 1580s.
His relentless advocacy for a North American empire
stimulated an increase in English voyages, with
the expectation that settlements would follow. For
decades, Dee provided the intellectual framework
and justification for England’s imperial vision.
In 1580 Dee drew this large map to locate
English territorial claims in North America, then
on the reverse side “proved” these claims through
reference to historical voyages, genealogical
traditions, treaties, and other evidence. From Florida
to Greenland, he found precedents for English
sovereignty. Some of these must have seemed
extraordinary, such as his insistence that the
northern reaches of the mainland belonged to
England given that King Arthur had populated part
of Greenland in the sixth century. Others held more
weight, such as his argument that the voyages of John
and Sebastian Cabot and the seafaring expeditions
of the Bristol fisherman near Newfoundland gave
England primacy over Spain on the North American
mainland. After all, Dee argued, Columbus may have
been the first to sail to the New World, but he never
reached the continent itself. Dee assured the queen
that these northern lands of the New World were
part of the English domain.
Dee’s reputation and network gave him clout
in Elizabethan England. In 1579 Sir Francis Drake
sailed up the Pacific coast of North America and
named it “New Britain,” leaving some of his few
remaining men to establish a colony. The Spanish
were outraged, and the queen brought Dee to
London to help defend and advance Drake’s claim.
Dee used a map to augment Drake’s assertions on
behalf of the Crown, arguing that English sovereignty
encompassed not just the Pacific coast but most of
North America. His maps exemplified the role
of geography as a tool of state power.
In 1578 Queen Elizabeth quietly granted Sir
Humphrey Gilbert permission to create an English
settlement in any land not controlled by a Christian
prince. In doing this she was careful not to challenge
Spanish sovereignty, but worried little about
infringing the territorial rights of Native Americans
living on the continent. Elizabeth’s patent to Gilbert
was the earliest English claim to territory that would
become the United States. After consulting Dee
in preparation for the voyage, Gilbert “granted”
the geographer rights to all the land that he might
discover north of the 50th parallel. Such a gift would
have included most of Canada and the long-sought
Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean, a grandiose
gesture based on the assumption that the English
had title to lands that they had yet to even see.
Gilbert’s voyage failed, as did Sir Walter Raleigh’s
subsequent attempt to establish a colony at Roanoke.
It would take years for English settlements to take
root in North America, but the father of these ideas—
the architect of the British empire as an idea and
a counterweight to the Spanish Crown—was John
Dee. For decades he used maps and treatises to
claim for the queen a worldwide territorial dominion,
convincing navigators, settlers, investors, and royalty
that the future of North America was English.THE FATHER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
John Dee, chart of part of the northern
hemisphere, 1580