Elizabethan Exploration and Colonisation

Mark Scheme (4 marks — 2 × 2 marks each): Each inference must state WHAT you infer AND quote/refer to the detail that supports it.

Inference 1 (2 marks): I can infer that Elizabethans saw exploration as a religious activity and believed God guided English voyages. Details that tell me this: Pretty describes arriving with "thankful hearts to God" and calls the voyage's experiences "wonders of the Lord in the deep" — framing the circumnavigation as divinely guided, not merely commercial or military.

Inference 2 (2 marks): I can infer that the circumnavigation was regarded as an extraordinary and historic achievement. Details that tell me this: Pretty emphasises the length of the voyage ("two years, ten months, and some few odd days") and describes "seeing the wonders" and "discoursing many admirable things," suggesting survivors felt they had accomplished something remarkable that deserved to be recorded and celebrated.

Avoid: Simply paraphrasing what the source says. You must state an inference (a conclusion you draw) supported by a specific quote or detail.

Mark Scheme (8 marks): Award marks for: evaluating utility of each source using NOP; considering content AND provenance/purpose; using own knowledge; reaching a judgement.

Level 3–4 (6–8 marks) answer would include:

Source A — Useful because: It shows how successful exploration was framed in religious and patriotic terms, helping explain why Elizabeth backed Drake's circumnavigation despite Spanish protests. Pretty's account demonstrates that exploration generated national pride and confidence — a clear "result" for England. However, its purpose (published in Hakluyt's promotional collection) makes it one-sided: it presents exploration as glorious and God-given, omitting the theft and violence that provoked the Armada crisis. As a source for "mixed results," it is limited because it only shows the successes.

Source B — Useful because: It provides direct evidence of exploration's most conspicuous failure — the disappearance of the Roanoke colony. White's letter reveals that England lacked the infrastructure to sustain a colony: no regular supply ships, no back-up plan, no means of rescuing settlers. The three-year gap (caused by the Armada crisis) shows how Anglo-Spanish conflict, itself partly caused by Drake's exploration, undermined colonisation. However, as a governor's private account, White may understate his own failures; and the source tells us little about why the colony was sent with the wrong settlers in the first place.

Own Knowledge: Together, the sources need contextual knowledge about Drake's commercial returns (£600,000), the founding of the East India Company (1600) showing commercial success, and the reasons why colonisation specifically failed — wrong type of settlers, broken relations with Algonquians, lack of state planning. This explains why exploration produced both great wealth (Drake, EIC) and conspicuous failure (Roanoke).

Mark Scheme (8 marks): Level 3 (6–8 marks) requires: chronological narrative; causal links between events; analysis of why things happened, not just what happened; range of reasons.

Model Narrative Structure:

England's failure to colonise Virginia in the 1580s resulted from a combination of poor planning, the wrong type of settlers, the breakdown of relations with indigenous people, and ultimately the disruption caused by the Armada crisis.

The first Roanoke colony (1585) was undermined from the start by the composition of the settlers. Raleigh sent 108 men, mostly soldiers and gentlemen, under the military governor Ralph Lane. Because no settlers were farmers or craftspeople, the colony could not feed itself and became entirely dependent on trade with the local Algonquian people for food. This dependency proved fatal when a dispute over a stolen silver cup led the English to attack the Algonquians, destroying the trust that had made food supply possible. With relations broken and starvation looming, the colonists abandoned the settlement when Drake arrived in 1586 returning from his raids on Spanish ports.

The second colony (1587) showed that lessons had been partially learned — 117 settlers, including women and children, were sent, suggesting a genuine attempt at permanent settlement rather than a military outpost. Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America, was born there. However, a critical structural weakness remained: the colony depended entirely on regular supply ships from England. When Governor John White returned to England for supplies, the Armada crisis of 1588 prevented any ships from sailing. White was unable to return until 1590 — by which time the colony had completely vanished. The only clue, "CROATOAN" carved on a post, suggested the settlers may have moved to Croatoan Island, but storms prevented White from investigating further.

The failure of both colonies ultimately shows that England lacked the organised state infrastructure that Spain had developed over a century of colonisation: no regular supply routes, no colonial administration, no experienced settlers, and no diplomatic framework for managing relations with indigenous peoples. The Armada crisis also revealed how Anglo-Spanish tensions, partly created by the very explorers who inspired colonisation, could fatally undermine colonial ventures.

Mark Scheme (16 marks): Level 4 (13–16 marks) requires: sustained analytical argument; range of factors including the named factor; relative weighting of factors; supported judgement sustained throughout; own knowledge throughout.

Plan / Structure:

Para 1 — Argument FOR (exploration as main cause): Drake's circumnavigation (1577–80) was a direct act of aggression against Spanish colonial wealth — he stole £600,000 in treasure from Spanish ships and ports. Elizabeth's decision to knight Drake in 1581 made clear that England would not apologise. Hawkins had been raiding Spanish Caribbean trade since 1562, breaking the Treaty of Tordesillas. Raleigh's Virginia colony (1584–87) threatened Spanish North America. These were not accidental provocations — they were deliberate, state-sponsored challenges to Spanish imperial dominance. Philip II described Drake as a "master-thief" and began planning the Armada after the circumnavigation. The financial damage alone gave Philip a concrete reason for war.

Para 2 — Religion as an equally important factor: England's Protestantism and Spain's Catholicism made conflict likely regardless of exploration. Elizabeth's excommunication by Pope Pius V (1570) effectively gave Catholic powers permission to overthrow her. Philip saw himself as the guardian of Catholic Europe. England's support for Dutch Protestant rebels (1585 Treaty of Nonsuch) was as provocative as Drake's raids — it committed English troops to fighting against Spain in the Netherlands. The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572), which killed thousands of French Protestants with Spanish approval, showed English Protestants what Catholic powers intended. Religion explains the depth of the conflict, not just its occasion.

Para 3 — Counter-argument/link: However, religion and exploration cannot be separated — they reinforced each other. Drake framed his raids in Protestant terms; Pretty's account shows the crew saw themselves as doing God's work against Catholic Spain. The exploration was partly ideological, not purely commercial. This means identifying exploration OR religion as "the" main cause is misleading: they were two dimensions of the same Protestant nationalist project. Exploration provided the specific provocations and financial damage; religion provided the ideological framework that made compromise impossible.

Conclusion — Sustained judgement: Exploration was the most direct and immediate cause of tensions because it provided concrete, measurable grievances: stolen treasure, breached monopolies, challenged territorial claims. Religion created the hostile atmosphere in which these provocations escalated to war, but without Drake's raids and Hawkins' slave voyages, tensions might have remained at the level of diplomatic hostility rather than military conflict. Therefore, while religion was an important underlying cause, exploration was the primary trigger for the decision to launch the Armada.

Examiner's Note: Award top marks only if the answer engages with BOTH factors and reaches a clear, argued judgement — not just a list of "on one hand... on the other hand" points without weighing them.