The New Foreign Policy

Elizabeth continued Henry VII's work and encouraged foreign trade. She considered Spain her main trade rival and enemy. Spain at that time ruled the Netherlands, where many people were Protestant and were fighting for their independence from. Catholic Spanish rule. To reach the Netherlands from Spain by sea, Spanish soldiers had to sail through the English Channel. Elizabeth helped the Dutch Protestants by allowing their ships, to use English harbours from which they could attack Spanish ships, often with the help of the English. When the Dutch rebels lost the city of Antwerp in 1585, Elizabeth helped them with money and soldiers. It was almost an open declaration of war on Spain.

English ships had already been attacking Spanish ships as they returned from America loaded with silver and gold. Although these English ships belong to private people, the treasure was shared with the queen. These seamen were traders as well as pirates and adventures. The most famous of them were John Hawkins, Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh Spanish king Philip decided that he had to conquer England if he wanted to defeat the Dutch rebels in the Netherlands. He hoped that enough Catholics in England would be willing to help him. He built a great fleet of ships, an Armada. But in 1587 Francis Drake attacked and destroyed part of this fleet in Cadiz harbour.

Philip started again and built a new Armada, a still larger fleet. But most of the ships were designed to carry soldiers, and the few fighting ships were not as good as the English ones. English ships were longer and narrower, so they were faster, and besides, their guns could shoot further than the Spanish ones.

The Spanish Armada was defeated more by bad weather than by English guns. Some Spanish ships were sunk, but most were blown northwards by the wind, and many of them were wrecked on the rocky coasts of Scotland and lreland. For England it was a glorious moment.

A Trading Empire. Elizabeth encouraged English traders to settle abroad and create colonies. This policy led directly to Britain's colonial empire of the 17th and 18th centuries.

The first English colonists sailed to America towards the end of the century. One of the best known was Sir Walter Raleigh, who brought tobacco back to England. England also began selling West African slaves for the Spanish in America. By 1650 slavery had become an important trade. Only at the end of the 18th century this shameful trade ended.

The second half of the 16th century saw the development of trade with foreign lands. During Elizabeth's reign so-called chartered companies were established. A charter gave the company the right to all the business in its particular trade or region. In return for this important advantage the chartered company gave some of its profits to the Crown. A number of these companies were established during

Elizabeth's reign: the Eastland Company to trade with Scandinavian and the Baltic in 1579, the Levant Company to trade with the Ottoman Empire in 1581, Africa Company to trade in slaves in 1588, and the East India Company to trade with India in 1600.