1. The British Empire

2. Intro Largest and strongest Empire in the world for over a century Product of the “Age of Discovery” By 1921 its population was 458 million ¼ of the worlds population 36.7 million kilometers “the sun never sets on the British Empire”

3. Origins It is hard to pin a definite point on the start of the British Empire Events that led to the formation Divided into the First(1583-1783) and Second(1783-1815) Empires

4. 1497-1583 In 1947 John Cabot made landfall on the coast of Canada No colony formed Got the idea going

5. 1583-1783 In 1578 Sir Humphrey Gilbert was granted a patent by Queen Elizabeth I for discovery and overseas exploration In 1583 Re-embarked headed for Newfoundland Further expeditions, although hit-and-miss, were the start of the British Empire.

6. b. Reign of Elizabeth I - Colonization

7. Queen Elizabeth I -Became Queen of England in 1558 and died in 1603. -Known as the Virgin Queen because she never married. -As the daughter of Henry VIII’s second wife, she was often considered illegitimate. -Considered intelligent despite being a woman. -The first protestant on the throne of England. -During her time, many religious battles were fought.

8. Colonization In 1578 Queen Elizabeth granted her permission to Sir Humphrey Gilbert to explore the new world. When Sir Gilbert died, his brother Walter Ralegh continued exploring the New World in his place. He founded a colony on Roanoke Island in 1587, in the place he named Virginia in honour of the Queen.

9. The Lost Colony of Roanoke The colony that was founded on Roanoke Island was founded to late in the season to planet crops, so the colony’s governor returned to England for supplies. England was in the middle of a war with Spain, and the trip back to the colony was delayed until 1591. When they returned they found no trace of the colonizers. To this day, their fate is not certain.

10. England and Spain Queen Elizabeth supported a Dutch protestant uprising against the Spanish, and Philip II supported Catholics inside England to try and overthrow the Queen. (Eventually this lead to the demise of Mary Queen of Scots.) Philip II tried to invade England in 1588 with the Armada, but was defeated due to a storm and the English fleet. After that Spain lost most of it’s involvement in colonizing the New World. England and Spain were the two main powers in Europe. They were also competing for new land, and their leaders had different religions.

11. Sources http://www.britishempire.co.uk/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

12. Bibliography http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/eliz1.html http://history.wisc.edu/sommerville/361/361-19.htm http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/sea-and-ships/in- depth/elizabeth/elizabeth's-adventurers/colonizing- america http://www.tccd.edu/uploadedfiles/employees/2173/co urses/HIST%201301/Lecture%202%20The%20Ra ce%20to%20Colonize%20the%20New%20World.d oc