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In 1558 Queen Mary was succeeded by her 25yo half-sister, Elizabeth, who became a symbol of national unity and one of the most famous English queen of all times.

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In order to swing England back to Protestantism, Elizabeth promoted the Second Act of Supremacy of 1559, by which she re-established the Anglican Church and had herself proclaimed its supreme governor. Her main objective was to establish a truly national Church that could include as many as possible of her subjects, whether they were Catholics or Protestants. Elizabeth approach to reform was known as the "middle way".

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Also known as the "Virgin Queen", Elizabeth had many suitors, one of whom was King Philip II of Spain. At that time marriage corresponded to political alliance, so Elizabeth rejected them all and never married because she was determined not to offend any section - Protestant or Catholic - and to preserve her country from foreign domination.

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In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh established a colony on the east coast of North America and called it "Virginia", in honour of Queen Elizabeth. A few years later, Elizabeth signed a charter for the British East India Company, which created links with Asia and challenged Dutch and Portuguese dominance of the spice trade.

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cartina geografica vecchia e flotta di navi

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In order to stop Elizabeth's support for Spain's enemies and the English raids on Spanish ships in the New World, in 1588 Philip II sent a gigantic fleet, called the Spanish Armada, to invade England. Philip's Armada was defeated by a combination of awful wather and skilled English seamen. This victory was a symbolic demonstrations of England's superiority over Spain.

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The unmarried Queen Elizabeth died childless in 1603 and was succeeded by her cousin James VI of Scotland, who now became James I of England.

James united three kingdoms: England, Scotland and Ireland. James considered himself above the low and Parliament. James also reinforced the Anglican Church and disappointed both the Catholics and the Protestants. His attitude let to two important events: the Gunpowder Plot and the departure of the Pilgrims Fathers.

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In 1605 a group of Catholics, angered by the fact that the King did nothing to improve the situation of Catholics in England, plotted to murder James I. With their leader, Guy Fawkes, they placed barrels of gunpowder in the cellar beneath the House of Parliament. This "Gunpowder Plot" was detected and Guy Fawkes and his men were arrested and then quartered.

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In 1620 a group of Puritans, trying to escape from religious persecution, set sail from Plymouth in a ship called "The Mayflower", landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachussetts, in America and founded a Puritan Commonwealth.

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1. What are the main characteristics of Elizabeth I's reign?

2. What happened in 1588? Why did this event have such a great impact?

3. Who succeeded Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 and why does his title have two numbers?

4. What is the Gunpowder Plot?

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Renaissance was considered an age of discovery: of the new world on one hand and of the ancient world of the classics on the other. The rediscovery, study and translation of the classics that had been lost in the Middle Ages was combined with the effort to develop all human possibilities at the centre of a movement called Humanism. All fields of learning flourished.

The English Renaissance was delayed by the break with Rome, but flourished in 16th century under Elizabeth. English humanists were less interested in art and architecture and more concerned with an intellectual and spiritual interest in ethics, religion and education.

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Modern colonialism begins in the "Age of Discovery", when spanish and portuguese explorers discovered South and Central America. Other European nations - France, Britain and Holland - established colonies in the New World and in Africa and Asia. We may identify two different types of colonialism: settler colonialism and exploitation colonialism. Settler colonialism brought large number of settlers to a new region for political or religious purposes. Exploitation colonialism sought to obtain cheap supplies of raw materials for industries.

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Slavery is old as society itself but the "slave trade" developed in the 17th century with the expansion of European commerce. Trading ships travelled from Europe to the west coast of Africa where they traded goods for people captured by African intermediaries. Those who were young and healthy enough were sold into slavery. Then the ships went to America and the Caribbean, but many slaves in that bad conditions didn't survive the transatlantic crossing.

The majority of these slaves worked on plantations colonized by European countries, producing tobacco or sugar which were transported to European countries. In England, slavery was considered both necessary for work in the American plantation and acceptable if the slaves were not Christians.

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1. Why was the Renaissance considered an age of (re)discovery?

2. In what way was the English Renaissance different from its Italian counterpart?

3. What different forms and purposes did colonisation have in this period?

4. Why was slavery considered legitimate?