- Oct 2024
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www.americanyawp.com www.americanyawp.com
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That speedy planting in diverse fit places is most necessary upon these lucky western discoveries for fear of the danger of being prevented by other nations which have the like intentions, with the order thereof and other reasons therewithal alleged.
This reminds me of the Columbian exchange and how with the addition of new plants and animals brought from the Old World, it also came with diseases and new definitions of unsanitary. This was about 100 years after Columbus' first expedition, so this isn't a novel idea about taking the old into the new. Even if he's not specifically talking about plants and is referring to social roots as opposed to physical materials, his statement is nonetheless true. The cultures colliding, already knowing that people inhabit the land, will be a point of contention for the British as they continue to explore America. The British would be spreading their beliefs and culture across the land while the Indigenous population would have to learn to assimilate (or vehemently oppose) to this new way of living.
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Richard Hakluyt used this document to persuade Queen Elizabeth I to devote more money and energy into encouraging English colonization. In twenty-one chapters, summarized here, Hakluyt emphasized the many benefits that England would receive by creating colonies in the Americas.
Who this text is for: the Queen and her advisors. It's been well established that the purpose of this document was to list the ways that England would benefit from expanding into the colonies, but there's no way to know what could have come from such making such an expedition. the Queen may have been hesitant to spend more money and resources for this voyage and wanted to focus on her subjects in the mother country before advancing to a new land. If she had any doubts before, I would say they went away pretty quickly after Hakluyt's reasoning for wanting England to colonize new lands.
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A note of some things to be prepared for the voyage which is set down rather to draw the takers of the voyage in hande to the present consideration then for any other reason for that diverse things require preparation long before the voyage, without which the voyage is maimed.
Something to take note of when reading is that there is a very specific audience in mind when Hakluyt was writing this. This was written to persuade someone, her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I. There is no taking into account how this will affect the people already inhabiting the land, what colonizing the land would even look like. It's a letter written with the sole intention of convincing her to spend more resources and supplies to secure creating a settlement that will procure wealth and religious prosperity for the Queen, but also Great Britain as a whole. Native Americans are not a part of that equation.
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especially in all the king of Spain his Dominions, where our men are driven to fling their Bibles and prayer Books into the sea, and to forswear and renounce their religion and conscience and consequently their obedience to her Majestie.
Did the Spanish have a different religion than that of the Englishmen? This tenant implies that the English would have to give up their religion when interacting with the Spanish. By doing so, they're also abandoning their loyalty to the Queen. Would they be punished for believing in a different religion than the Spanish? Is this just a hypothetical?
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That the passage in this voyage is easy and short, that it cutteth not near the trade of any other mighty Princes, nor near their Countries, that it is to be performed at all tymes of the year, and needeth but one kind of wind, that Ireland being full of good heavens on the south and west sides, is the nearest part of Europe to it, which by this trade shall be in more security, and the sooner drawn to more Civility.
It will be a short voyage and the route they choose to take should not interfere with any trade routes or be near any territory claimed by other Princes.
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That hereby the Revenues and customs of her Majestie both outwards and inwards shall mightely be enlarged by the toll, excises, and other duties which without oppression may be raised.
Very interesting that Hakluyt emphasizes how creating colonies in the Americas will bring in greater revenue for the Queen by creating taxes for the colonists to have to pay. This notion, used more as a persuasion technique than anything concrete, is the catalyst for the American Revolution that occurs almost 200 years later. It's stated outright this is for the Queen's benefit and not the people who will reside there. The implications of that are quite clear, that Britain sees the colonies as a means to an end for their imperialistic endeavors. Wonder what Thomas Paine would think if he saw that...
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equinoctial
happening near or around an equinox
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That the Spaniards have executed most outrageous and more than Turkish cruelties in all the west Indies, whereby they are everywhere there, become most odious unto them, who would join with us or any other most willingly to shake of their most intolerable yoke, and have begun to do it already in diverse places where they were Lords heretofore.
One of the huge driving forces behind England's colonization was them wanting to be better than the Spaniards for how they decided to colonize. The Spanish were known for their brutality and unspeakable offenses to the native people of the land, and so many other countries that wished to expand their own territory were adamant on not behaving like them. However they chose to interpret that "we didn't kill or rape as many of them as the Spaniards did", if it was justification as to why they should expand (to spite the Spaniards), or for another reason altogether, I'm not certain. I do know that the Spanish did influence how other countries went about exploring and invading land and served as a "what not to-do" when encountering the people native to the land.
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Written In the year 1584 by Richard Hakluyt of Oxford
This document was written 92 years after Columbus had made his first voyage to the Americas. English colonization wasn't a brand new idea at this time, so I wonder why Hakluyt had to convince the Queen to devote more of their resources to it (did their voyages not bear fruit?).
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