-Financing English colonies
-The "Lost ColonY"
-Reasons for Emigrating
-The Effects of the English Civil War

[SLIDE 1]

The policy of the English government was somewhat "hands off" where colonization was concerned. It was not willing to finance colonization through government expenditures, instead relying on private individuals willing to undertake the financial burden.

[SLIDE 2]

The Roanoke Island colony was an early effort by Walter Raleigh to establish an English colony. It is still celebrated on the Outer Banks of North Carolina as "the Lost Colony.” Cut off from contact with England, the people of the colony disappeared and their fate is unknown.

[SLIDE 3]

Because the English government didn't do much to promote colonization, English settlement got off to a slow start. By the 17th century, however, conditions in England were such that there were many reasons a private individual might want to emigrate. By the time political stability was restored to England at the end of the Glorious Revolution, there would be twelve English colonies along the East coast of North America.

[SLIDE 4]

Sheep farming had long been important in England. An increase in sheep farming, however, meant that many tenant farmers were kicked off their land to make way for sheep. Many farmers were dispossessed and desperate, often forced into crime and prostitution. Emigration to America began to seem a hopeful prospect.

[SLIDE 5]

In addition to growing numbers of the economically dispossessed, religion was an ongoing source of civil strife. The English Civil War had roots going back to the establishment of the Church of England by Henry VIII. Many felt that both the Anglican Church and the Stuart monarchs James I and Charles I, descendants of the Catholic Mary Queen of Scotts, were too much influenced by Catholicism.

[SLIDE 6]

The divisions between the camps were threefold: government division between Royalists and Parliamentarians; division between social classes; and division between Calvinist Protestants and anti-Calvinists within the Church of England. Although James and his son Charles I were Protestants, they and the Church of England were viewed as being too Catholic. Since the king was the head of the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, complaints against the Church could be viewed as treason. In addition, there was the key question of how much authority Parliament had relative to a king who thought he should be able to do whatever he wished. In brief, the result of the English Civil War was that Parliament's role in government was safeguarded against the overweening authority of the monarch.

[SLIDE 7]

The participants were largely divided along class lines as well as religious lines.

[SLIDE 8]

To summarize, as a result of the civil war, the reigning king, Charles I, was deposed and executed, and a parliamentary republic was temporarily established under the Puritan Oliver Cromwell. When the monarchy was restored eleven years later, it was done with safeguards in place to secure Parliament's role in government. Another monarchic crisis known as the Glorious Revolution would ensue under James II, and end any chance of Catholicism being reestablished in England. It also resulted in the final establishment of Parliament as the supreme ruling power in England.