The History of the Americans

This is our special Columbus Day episode, dropped on "old school" Columbus Day, instead of the "Canadian Thanksgiving" Columbus Day long-weekend holiday. This episode is not actually about the Columbus Day social war, except in passing. Instead, we consider the larger consequences of Columbus's "Great Enterprise," and various counterfactuals -- "what if" moments that might have made it all go quite differently. Along the way we say some challenging things that will irritate almost everybody, but we know you are only listening because of your resolutely open minds! Selected references for this episode Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus Alfred W. Crosby, Jr., The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492, 30th Anniversary Edition Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian, “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas” Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created Noble David Cook, Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650

It is July 1585. Sir Richard Grenville, in command of the first English expedition of colonization to reach the territory that is now the United States, has arrived at the Outer Banks of North Carolina with five ships, only two of which were part of his original fleet.  The flagship Tiger has run aground, and in the course of refloating her a large part of the expedition’s supplies had been lost. Thomas Cavendish commands the Elizabeth, which made it to a pre-planned rendezvous on the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico.  They have two small Spanish ships captured in the Mona Passage between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, and a new pinnace for shallow water exploration, built from scratch. Unbeknownst to Grenville and Cavendish, there are thirty Englishmen wandering around the barrier islands not far to the north, unceremoniously dumped there by George Raymond, captain of the Red Lion, who had blown off the colony to privateer between Newfoundland and the Azores. They also didn’t know, yet, that the Roebuck and the Dorothy, thought lost since a storm off the coast of Portugal, had found their own way and were anchored offshore not far to the north waiting for Grenville and Cavendish to show up.  And, finally, the most important thing they didn’t know was that the re-supply ships, under the command of Amias Preston and Bernard Drake -- no relation to Francis -- had been ordered by Elizabeth I to sail for Newfoundland instead of North Carolina, so that they could harass the economically important Spanish cod-fishing operation. Now it was time to pay a visit to the chief of the Secotans, Wingina, whose portrait by John White is the featured image for this episode. Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke David Beers Quinn, Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606

Sir Walter Ralegh's first attempt to settle the Outer Banks of North Carolina -- the first Roanoke colony, under the command of Sir Richard Grenville -- got off to a rough start. A storm off Portugal had scattered the fleet, and only Grenville's Tiger and Thomas Cavendish's Elizabeth made it to the agreed interim rendezvous on the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico. Grenville and Cavendish replenished the fleet with Spanish prizes, and eventually got to Cape Hatteras only to lose most of the colony's supplies when the Tiger ran aground trying to enter Pamlico Sound. We also discuss the "Black Legend" debate, the revisionist view that anti-Spanish propaganda by English and Dutch Protestants unfairly influenced much of the image of the Spanish empire, and how two things can be true at once. The featured image for this episode is Sir Richard Grenville at age 29. Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke David Beers Quinn, Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606 Black Legend (Spain) Alan Sherman, "Good Advice"

In the spring of 1584, Sir Walter Ralegh (the spelling he used), now the chief organizer and promoter of English settlement in North America, dispatched two ships to the Outer Banks of North Carolina on a mission of reconnaissance. They explored Hattaras Island and Roanoke Island, and the area between Pamlico Sound in the south and the mouth of the Chesapeake in the north. They brought home to England two Indians, Manteo and Wanchese, who would go on to speak English and would have a huge impact on the two subsequent attempts to settle English people in the area. #VastEarlyAmerica Website: The History of the Americans https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke David Beers Quinn, Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606

In this episode we discuss the planning for the first English colonization of North America in the context of England's strategy to resist Spanish hegemony and Protestantism's defense against Catholicism. We look at the key figures who advocated for, invested in, and led the first English settlement efforts, which include the two failed expeditions and tragic ending of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, which set up his younger half-brother, Sir Walter Ralegh, to take over the project. #VastEarlyAmerica Website: The History of the Americans https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke John Butman and Simon Targett, New World, Inc.: The Story of the British Empire’s Most Successful Start-Up David Beers Quinn, Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584-1606

In this episode we chase Francis Drake and the Golden Hind from the equator, just off the west coast of South America, all the way around the world and back to England. Along the way Drake claims the northwest coast of North America for England, naming it "Novo Albion," cuts a trade deal with Babu, the Sultan of the Moluccas, and makes it back to England in the most remarkable feat of sailing in the sixteenth century. Drake becomes one of England's richest men, is knighted by Elizabeth and becomes one of her closest advisors, and finds himself in the middle of a changed geopolitical landscape. Tensions with Spain have risen considerably, and Drake is in the middle of it. #VastEarlyAmerica Website: The History of the Americans https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast References for this episode Samuel Bawlf, The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 Melissa Darby, Thunder Go North: The Hunt for Sir Francis Drake's Fair & Good Bay Miranda Kaufmann, Black Tudors: The Untold Story John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake

When last we left Drake and company, it was August 1578, and the fleet had spent a good part of the southern winter in the protected harbor at Port Saint Julian, in today’s Argentina, about a hundred miles north of the entrance to the Strait of Magellan.  That was where Drake was headed, because that was the only way that any European knew of to get into the Pacific Ocean by heading west. In the next seven months, Drake and his crew would make the fastest crossing of the Strait during the fifteenth century, discover Drake's Passage and thereby overturn the received wisdom of Europe's geographers (who believed South America was connected to a southern continent at the South Pole), and by some measures have the most spectacular run of any English pirate or privateer in history. We also learn the origin of the name "penguin," which makes great dinner party conversation. #VastEarlyAmerica Website: The History of the Americans https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast References for this episode Samuel Bawlf, The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake NASA Lunar Eclipse Database

On September 26, 1580, some fisherman not far from shore in the English Channel saw a small ship, riding low in the water, moving cautiously toward Plymouth Sound.  A man aboard the ship hailed the fisherman and asked whether the Queen was alive?  The fisherman replied to Sir Francis Drake that she was, but that a plague – influenza, apparently -- was raging in Plymouth itself.                1018 days after he had set sail from England, Drake had returned with a hold full of treasure and a trove of important information about the world.  Before he could approach Plymouth, however, he had to know whether Elizabeth, who had sent him on a secret mission through the Strait of Magellan to the west coast of North America, was still queen, or whether a successor, who might well have been Catholic and an ally of Spain, now reigned. This is part 1 of the story of the second circumnavigation of the globe, and the extraordinary things that happened along the way. In today's episode, Drake discovers a cure for scurvy 180 years before a Scottish doctor in the Royal Navy learned that citrus fruits did the job, and his sailors make the coolest souvenirs in history, at least that we know of. And that's the very least of it, for Drake sets the stage for the English settlement of North America. #VastEarlyAmerica https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast References for this episode Samuel Bawlf, The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake Scurvy Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Email: thehistoryoftheamericans@gmail.com

This episode is the second of our series on Sir Francis Drake.  Last week, we revisited the catastrophic battle of San Juan d’Ulua in the harbor near Vera Cruz, Mexico between the English trader, smuggler, and slaver John Hawkins and arriving ships of the Spanish treasure fleet. Francis Drake, still with no “sir” at the front of his name, had limped back to England in one of the two surviving ships, arriving in January 1569.  He fumed at the duplicity of the Viceroy of Mexico, who had breached a guarantee of safe conduct he had given the English. Drake vowed to wage war against the Spanish and vex Philip of Spain from one end of his realm to another. This episode looks at Drake's voyages to the Caribbean in 1570, 1571, and again in 1572-73. These expeditions, which kicked off the era of English piracy in the Caribbean, made Drake a rich man, sorely vexed Philip, and made Drake famous at home and infamous among the Spanish. They would also earn Drake the wealth, credibility, and social status necessary to get the backing and authorization he would need to explore the west coast of the Americas and circumnavigate the globe from 1577-80. #VastEarlyAmerica https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast References for this episode Samuel Bawlf, The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake

This episode introduces Sir Francis Drake, and describes the moment when he declared a personal war on Philip II of Spain, a war that would change everything. Sir Francis Drake was essential to the history of the Americans. The father of English sea power, Drake and a small group of English West Country seamen cleared the way for the English settlement of North America. Drake almost single-handedly provoked the Spanish into war with England and then twice beat the Spanish navy, once by ambushing a good part of it in port in 1587 and then doing more than any other English commander to beat the famous Spanish Armada the next year.  Had that war gone the other way, England might never have become a global naval power and thereby an empire, the English language might never have become the lingua franca of commerce around the world, and English settlement in North America would have unfolded very differently, if it had happened at all. #VastEarlyAmerica https://subscribebyemail.com/thehistoryoftheamericans.com/?feed=podcast References for this episode Samuel Bawlf, The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake