This is the first of two or three episodes - your podcaster hasn't decided yet -- about a daring Dutch raid on the West Indies and the English colonies of North America during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. The extended raid, led by Commander Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest of the Admiralty of the Dutch province of Zeeland and a privateer named Jacob Benckes, was a sideshow in that war, yet its consequences were far-reaching.  Among other accomplishments, Evertsen, known to his fans as Kees the Devil, and Benckes, "subdued three English colonies, depopulated a fourth, captured or destroyed nearly 200 enemy vessels, inflicted a serious injury upon the Virginia tobacco trade, wiped out the English Newfoundland fisheries, and caused unending panic in the New England colonies.”  They recovered New York for the Dutch to the great if fleeting joy of much of its citizenry, and so demoralized the English that Parliament turned against the war and forced Charles II to sue for peace. The story is best understood in the context of the Anglo-Dutch Wars, which have been in the background of many of our episodes. This episode, therefore, is a primer on the first two Anglo-Dutch wars, and the run-up to the third, which will feature in the next episode. Map of the Low Countries at the relevant time (note the corrider denoted the "Bishopbric of Leige" connecting the Dutch Republic to France): X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Useful background episode: https://thehistoryoftheamericans.com/the-fall-of-new-amsterdam-and-the-founding-of-new-york/ Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) Donald G. Shomette and Robert D. Haslach, Raid on America: The Dutch Naval Campaign of 1672-1674 C. R. Boxer, "Some Second Thoughts on the Third Anglo-Dutch War, 1672-1674," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 1969. Third Anglo-Dutch War (Wikipedia) Four Days Battle (Wikipedia) Raid on the Medway (Wikipedia)

In 1672, the settlers of the New Jersey proprietary colony arose in a bloodless rebellion against Philip Carteret, appointed by the proprietors as governor. The wannabe rebels formed an illegal legislature, and installed Captain James Carteret as "president," putting them in conflict with Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, James's father. The conflict had to do with taxes, quitrents, and title to land. John Ogden, ancestor of your podcaster, emerged as a key player in the "popular party." By the summer of 1673, the proprietors, with the help of the Duke of York and King Charles II, had put down the rebellion. James, now virtually disowned by his father, fled to Carolina, but along the way would be captured by the Dutch captain Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest, known to his many fans as "Kees the Devil." James, or one of his resentful allies, would describe the defenses of New York to Evertsen, setting up the Dutch reconquest of New York. X/Twitter – @TheHistoryOfTh2 – https://x.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans Useful background: https://thehistoryoftheamericans.com/ohhhh-whaddabout-new-jersey/ Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website) John E. Pomfret, Province of East New Jersey, 1609-1702: The Rebellious Proprietary James Carteret: The Black Sheep (Interesting blog post on James Carteret)

While the English were consolidating their territory on most of the eastern seaboard of North America in the 1600s, Spanish Florida plugged along with its sole city at St. Augustine, with little European population growth. That simple fact obscures remarkable changes in the civil society of the future Sunshine State. From the 1570s, after the Jesuits had given up, until the 1720s, a small band of Franciscan friars, at no time numbering more than around fifty, built a network of wood and thatched missions throughout the region. They converted tens of thousands of Florida Indians to Catholicism, many practicing with such diligence that a visiting Frenchman wrote that the Apalachee were “scarcely distinguishable [in their practices] from Europeans who had been Christians for centuries.”  The relationship between the Franciscans in Florida and the indigenous peoples was not only different than anywhere in English or Dutch North America, it was different from everywhere else in the Spanish New World, including New Mexico at the same time, and California and Texas in the following century. As a result, the relationship between the Spanish and the Indians of Florida was symbiotic, one of shared religion, trade, and mutual support rather than conquest. Unfortunately, it would all fall apart when the English Carolinians marched south looking for people to enslave. Map of Spanish Missions in Florida 1560s - 1720s: X/Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the website) Michael Gannon (ed), The History of Florida Wreck of the La Nuestra Senora de Atocha

On May 30, 1931, the Saturday after Memorial Day, the beleaguered President Herbert Hoover addressed a crowd of 20,000 people under sweltering heat at Valley Forge. This episode looks at that speech in the context of Hoover's life and times. Contemporary listeners will see much that is familiar in Hoover's speech -- politicians are in many ways similar across generations -- and also sentiments that we have not heard from our presidents in a long time. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast References for this episode William E. Leuchtenburg, Herbert Hoover Herbert Hoover Memorial Day Address at Valley Forge, May 30, 1931 New York Times coverage Jessie De Priest tea at White House Men at Work - "Down Under" Theme song to "All In The Family" Herbert Hoover speech of November 4, 1932

We are on the road to Plymouth. There are several strands that weave together in 1620, when the Pilgrims on the Mayflower land at an abandoned Indian village known as Patuxet, at a site John Smith had named Plymouth. One of those strands is the rise of dissident Protestantism in England, and the idea that it might best be dealt with by transplanting early Separatists to the New World. The first such project, an attempt in 1597 to make a Separatist colony on islands at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, would fail spectacularly. But it would also be an important precursor of the settlement that many -- not all, but many -- Americans identify as the national origin story. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast References for this episode David B. Quinn, "The First Pilgrims," The William and Mary Quarterly, July 1966. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Pilgrim)

Samuel de Champlain returns to New France in 1615, and leads an alliance of Huron and Algonquin tribes into western New York State to attack Onondaga, the heavily fortified heart of Iroquois territory on the site of today's Syracuse. Along the way Champlain goes fishing on Lake Huron and Lake Ontario, and we learn that he was not the first European to do. The battle itself is dramatic. The French and their allies build a huge siege tower that requires two hundred men to move in position. But not all ends well. Champlain is injured, and endures unbelievable pain in the retreat to Huronia. The outcome is a matter of some historical controversy. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode David Hackett Fischer, Champlain’s Dream Étienne Brûlé (Wikipedia) Étienne Brûlé (Dictionary of Canadian Biography) Susquehannock (Wikipedia) Casablanca ("There are certain sections of New York...") The Fifth Column Podcast Map of Champlain's route through Huronia and into Iroquoia: Map of Champlain's route in 1615, from Champlain's Dream

We're back after our week off! In this episode we touch on our vacation driving the Natchez Trace, and then proceed briskly to the career of Samuel Argall - Pocahontas's kidnapper - in the service of the Virginia Company and himself. Most importantly, we look at the hilariously devious ruse that Argall deployed in 1613 to "displant" the French colony on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Seymour V. Connor, "Sir Samuel Argall: A Biographical Sketch," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, April 1951. Casablanca (Your papers please) Pierre Biard Natchez Trace

This episode is a “Sidebar,” which is our term for an episode that is off the timeline of the History of the Americans. This episode centers on a concurring opinion delivered by Justice Neil Gorsuch in a case handed down by the United States Supreme Court only a few days ago, on April 21, 2022. The case, United States vs. Vaello Madero, addresses a pretty unexciting question to most of us -- whether the Constitution requires Congress to extend Supplemental Security Income benefits to residents of Puerto Rico to the same extent it makes those benefits available to the residents of the States. That is not the interesting part. Justice Gorsuch's concurring opinion is, however, very interesting, an eloquent re-telling of the history of a series of cases -- the "Insular Cases" -- handed down in the years following the Spanish-American war, the moment in which the United States started dabbling in the European habit of true empire building. The Insular Cases are both an analytical mess and remain on the books as bad law today, as Justice Gorsuch compellingly argues. Enjoy! Selected references for this episode United States v. Vaello Madero Daniel Immerwahr, How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Insular Cases (Wikipedia) Plessy v. Ferguson (Wikipedia) U.S. Citizen Vs U.S. National: Differences "Breaker Morant," epitaph scene

It is late winter, 1616.  When last we left our lovers, John and Rebecca Rolfe were in receipt of a request from the Virginia Company to come to London.  They had a young son, Thomas, barely a year old, so this must not have been an easy decision to make. This episode is about that trip to London in 1616 and 1617. The young family sailed in April 1616 on Samuel Argall’s frigate Treasurer, the same ship onto which Pocahontas had been lured and kidnapped three years before.  In addition to the Rolfes, Powhatan’s son-in-law, Uttamatomakin, came along at the paramount chief’s behest to learn what he could of the English. And the English would learn a lot about them. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast References for this episode Camilla Townsend, Pocahontas And The Powhatan Dilemma David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation The Blue Brothers (Tunnel scene)

This episode is about the kidnapping and ransom of Pocahontas in 1613, the romancing of her by John Rolfe, her conversion to Christianity, and their marriage in 1614, which settled the First Anglo-Powhatan War.  We look at the two protagonists, their different personalities, their motives, and the extent of their emotional attachment. My primary source for this episode is a very interesting book written only in 2004 by Camilla Townsend, “Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma.”  Professor Townsend reads all the various accounts of Pocahontas’ life critically, in the sense of thoughtfully, trying to imagine what she must have felt under the circumstances described by the various European men who encountered her and wrote down what they believed happened. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast References for this episode Camilla Townsend, Pocahontas And The Powhatan Dilemma Mawage John Philip Sousa, "Powhatan's Daughter March" Errata: I misspoke when I said that Thomas Rolfe would have many children - he had many grandchildren, all descended from his only daughter, Jane Rolfe, who would marry Robert Bolling. Their son John Bolling would have six children, all of whom would marry and have children of their own.

This episode is a close look at the First Anglo-Powhatan War, which began shortly after John Smith left Jamestown forever in October 1609, and ended as a formal matter with the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. The war was extremely bloody, if casualties are measured as a percentage of original population, and is noteworthy as the first true war between English settlers and the Indians of North America. Many more would come. But, before even getting to seventeenth century Virginia, we fix our gimlet eye on the historical significance of National Beer Day! Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode J. Frederick Fausz, "An 'Abundance of Blood Shed on Both Sides': England's First Indian War, 1609-1614," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, January 1990 James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America National Beer Day (Wikipedia) Message of FDR to Congress re the Volstead Act Elizabeth Warren gets her a beer

After the experience of 15 months, 66 substantive episodes, and more than 180,000 aggregate downloads/listens, I thought it would be useful to reintroduce the podcast. I labored over the original introduction and still stand by it, and yet it does not really reflect the tone of the podcast as it has turned out. This episode is therefore a new introduction for both new and longstanding subscribers. It includes a description of the podcast as it has actually evolved, and also my thoughts on the need for history to be fun and interesting, the avoidance of "presentism," and the importance of attempting to keep politics out of the teaching and telling of history. And there's an awesome clip from "Inherit the Wind."

Again we digress into the question of privateering and letters of marque, and then take on the stories of the two "sons" whom Christopher Newport and the paramount chief Powhatan exchanged as hostages and emissaries in 1608, the English boy Thomas Savage and the young Powhatan man Namontack. Neither are as famous as Pocahontas or, for that matter, Squanto (Tisquantum), but they were remarkable in their own right. Both would show an impressive facility for utterly alien languages and cultures, and both would be torn between loyalty to their own people and to the side that adopted them. One of them would eventually achieve the honor of giving a name to a vessel of the United States Navy. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Christopher Clausen, "Between Two Worlds," The American Scholar, Summer 2007 Alden T. Vaughan, "Namontack's Itinerant Life and Mysterious Death: Sources and Speculations," The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 2018. USS Namontack The Paris Declaration of 1856 (re privateering) Jimmy Buffett, "A Pirate Looks At Forty," with Jerry Jeff Walker Malintzin (Wikipedia) Debedeavon (Wikipedia)

We are back to Spanish Florida after a long hiatus, with the story of St. Augustine, La Florida after the founding of the city and the slaughter of the Huguenots at Fort Caroline until the construction of the Castillo de San Marcos in the 1670s. The city would almost fail, and in 1607 the Spanish Crown ordered that it be shut down and that Spain withdraw from Florida all together. That order would be promptly rescinded when the English landed at Jamestown. It is a story of courageous Catholic evangelism, Indian wars, relentless epidemics, and pirates, climaxing in the raid of the dread pirate Robert Searles in 1668. That attack would, ironically, result in a renewed commitment by the Spanish government to sustaining the city which would ensure its long-term survival as the oldest continuing town in the United States. X/Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the website) Carrie Gibson, El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America Michael Gannon (ed), The History of Florida Susan Richbourg Parker, "St. Augustine in the Seventeenth-Century: Capital of La Florida," The Florida Historical Quarterly, Winter 2014 Diana Reigelsperger, "Pirate, Priest, and Slave: Spanish Florida in the 1668 Searles Raid," The Florida Historical Quarterly, Winter 2014 List of Cuba–United States aircraft hijackings

In this episode we look at the gruesome "starving time" in Jamestown and the resurgent Powhatan war during the seven months after John Smith's departure in October 1609. The mortality rate at the colony is close to 80% in just that winter, and the incompetence that led to it is breathtaking. Relief comes only with the arrival of two ships from Bermuda carrying the castaways from the Sea Venture shipwreck there. The Powhatans almost eject the English from Virginia, but the aptly named Lord de la Warr fatefully arrives just in time with much-needed reinforcements and supplies. If a few things had gone even slightly differently, Jamestown would not have survived, and English North America would be very different. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation James Horn, A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America All That's Interesting/Starving Time (Story about archeology at the Jamestown site that I came across after I had recorded the episode) United States state-level population estimates: Colonization to 1999 Dr. Strangelove (checklist scene)

John Rolfe and Pocahontas

Here come the Dutch! In the busy summer of 1609, English captain Henry Hudson, sailing the Half Moon for the Dutch East India Company, explores the Hudson River from New York Bay to the north of Albany, having numerous encounters, fraught and otherwise, with the local indigenous people along the way. Before he's done Hudson learns the name of that long skinny island that has forever been the economic capital of the United States. The episode concludes with Hudson's gruesome demise, for which he mostly had himself to blame. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America Daniel K. Richter, "From 'The Third Voyage of Master Henry Hudson' by Robert Juet" Emanuel Van Meteren, on Hudson’s Voyage, 1610 Dutch East India Company (Wikipedia) Palisades Amusement Park commercial "Happy Days"

It is the summer of 1609. Samuel de Champlain has founded Quebec and spent the winter there. During that very difficult time, with its Jamestown-like death rate, he had built strong alliances with the Montaignais, Huron, and other local tribes. The Mohawks, coming up from today's New York State, have been attacking Champlain's allies for many years, long before the French arrived, but those attacks have intensified. The European fur trade has gotten more lucrative, and that makes the tribes along the St. Lawrence a more attractive target for Mohawk attacks. Champlain develops a plan to launch a preemptive raid on the Mohawk, deep in their own territory, to make them think twice about attacking to their north. Along the way, he and two companions become the first Europeans to see Lake Champlain or set foot in today's Vermont. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode David Hackett Fischer, Champlain’s Dream The Devil Wears Prada (clip) The Bridge on the River Kwai (clip)

After a brief digression into current events and a visit to a Ukrainian speakeasy, we accompany Samuel de Champlain to the first settlement of New France, which was in today's Maine, just 1700 feet from Nova Scotia. We also recount his three trips along the coast of New England in 1604, 1605, and 1606, barely missing George Weymouth and the Archangel along the way. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode David Hackett Fischer, Champlain’s Dream Eric Yanis, The Other States of America History Podcast Machias-Seal Island

In this episode we learn the political and geopolitical foundations of New France and the importance of the beloved King Henri IV to French expansion in North America. We follow Champlain in his youth, including his first adventure in the New World on a Spanish ship, and the circumstances under which he inherited a lot of money. We also meet the remarkable characters who recruited Champlain, or vice versa, to sail on an expedition to the St. Lawrence in 1603, where Champlain first heard tell of the big lakes in upstate New York, one of which bears his name, the Great Lakes, and the Hudson and Detroit rivers. Oh, and we learn the origin of the expression "a chicken in every pot." Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode David Hackett Fischer, Champlain’s Dream Eric Yanis, The Other States of America History Podcast Geaux Tigers Heartwarming Ted Lasso Moments (YouTube)

In this episode we introduce Samuel de Champlain, without whom there might never have been a meaningful French presence in northern North America, largely through the work of the great historian David Hackett Fischer. We also consider Fischer's views on whether history should be useable. Finally, but first, we address listener concerns over my pronunciation of "Powhatan," a fraught topic indeed. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode David Hackett Fischer, Champlain’s Dream Expulsion of the Acadians (Wikipedia)

In this episode we conclude John Smith's run at Jamestown -- he will depart on October 4, 1609 after a severe injury and, more relevantly, having been demoted after having lost corporate political battles inside the Virginia Company. Along the way we meet the first English women at Jamestown, consider the "coronation" of Powhatan, witness exciting exotic dancing, see Smith outwit both Powhatan and Opechancanough on the same trip for food, and be there when Pocahontas rescued Smith for the second time, or maybe only the first. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation Star Trek, the "balance of power" exchange from "A Private Little War"

This is the 57th episode of the podcast, so we take a very brief digression to discuss that milestone. Mostly, this episode looks at the first nine months of 1608, which saw the rise of John Smith to the colony's presidency amid rising tension with the Powhatan Confederacy. To lower that tension, the English and the Powhatans exchange young men in a gesture of goodwill, and so will begin the stories of Thomas Savage and Namontack. Smith leads two separate explorations of the Chesapeake, in search of the Virginia Company's three priorities: Precious metals, a "middle passage" to the Pacific, and "lost colonists" from the Roanoke Colony, in addition to an objective of his own -- to make contact with tribes who are antagonists of the Powhatans, and potential allies of the English. Oh, and Ratcliffe ends up in the brig. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation Karen Ordahl Kupperman, “Apathy and Death in Early Jamestown,” The Journal of American History, June 1979.

It is late May, 1607, and Jamestown has survived the first organized attack against the settlement, this time from an alliance of five tribes from the Powhatan Confederacy. Captain Christopher Newport and John Smith don't know this yet, because they have taken twenty-two men in their boat and were exploring up the James River. There they hear about a "paramount chief" for the first time, and the large tribal confederacy that confronts them. As the summer and fall of 1607 grinds on, disease, starvation, and Indian attacks afflict the colonists, and more than half will die before the end of the year. John Ratcliffe replaces Edward-Maria Wingfield as president of the colony, but John Smith is its chief operating officer, rallying the men to build houses an clear fields, and trading with the local tribes for food. While exploring upriver, he is captured by the military leader of the Powhatans, Opechancanough. Smith eventually meets the paramount chief Powhatan. The episode closes with a first look at the famous scene in which Pocahontas either saved John Smith's life, or didn't! Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Selected resources for this episode James Horn, A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation

In March 1663, after 97 years of failed attempts by first the Spanish and then the English to establish settlements in North Carolina, King Charles II granted eight aristocrats a vast territory extending from the coast of today's North and South Carolina to the Pacific Ocean. These eight Lords Proprietor - George, Duke of Albemarle; Edward, Earl of Clarendon; William, Lord Craven; John, Lord Berkeley; Anthony, Lord Ashley; Sir George Carteret; Sir William Berkeley, who was again the governor of Virginia; and Sir John Colleton - would almost unwittingly authorize in their new colony a remarkably free and democratic society of small farmers, rivaled only by Roger Williams' Rhode Island in its respect for individual liberty. X/Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the website) Lindley S. Butler, A History of North Carolina in the Proprietary Era 1629-1729 Noeleen McIlvenna, A Very Mutinous People: The Struggle for North Carolina, 1660-1713 George Bancroft, History of the United States of America, Vol. 1 Charter of Carolina - March 24, 1663 Charter of Carolina - June 30, 1665

This episode looks at the prophecy that animated Powhatan's consolidation of power in the region, the violent first encounters between the Virginia Company expedition and the indigenous peoples at the mouth of the Chesapeake, internal squabbles within the English leadership, and the bizarre decision by Jamestown's president Edward-Maria Wingfield to disarm unilaterally, in the fruitless hope of winning the favor of the locals. We also take a first look at the staggering body count that would pile up over the first eighteen years of the Jamestown settlement. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Selected resources for this episode Carl Bridenbaugh, Jamestown, 1544-1699 James Horn, A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation Karen Ordahl Kupperman, "Apathy and Death in Early Jamestown," The Journal of American History, June 1979.

In late December, 1606, in London’s River Thames, three small ships were anchored awaiting a voyage across the Atlantic. Those three ships were the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, and they would take 105 men and boys to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay to establish the Virginia Company’s southern colony. They would plunge into a complex geopolitical morass that would very nearly destroy the venture. This episode looks at the context for the expedition that would become Jamestown, including especially the rise of the powerful Powhatan confederacy that would be waiting there when the English arrived, and prepared by a long-ago confrontation with the Spanish to confront the newcomers . Selected resources for this episode Carl Bridenbaugh, Jamestown, 1544-1699 Charlotte M. Gradie, “Spanish Jesuits in Virginia: The Mission That Failed” James Horn, A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation John Smith (Wikipedia)

This week we continue and complete our story of the English adventures along the coast of New England in the first decade of the 17th century, including the fate, and the historical debate over the fate, of the Popham Colony, the Virginia Company's sister colony to Jamestown. Along the way we learn about the astonishing origin of the word "Iroquois," the first dog names in North America that come down to us, and the medicinal value, or not, of sassafras! Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Selected references for this episode Henry Otis Thayer, The Sagadahoc Colony: Comprising the Relation of a Voyage Into New England Christopher J. Bilodeau, "The Paradox of Sagadahoc: The Popham Colony, 1607–1608," Early American Studies, Winter 2014. Alfred A. Cave, "Why Was the Sagadahoc Colony Abandoned? An Evaluation of the Evidence," The New England Quarterly, December 1995. "The Voyage of Martin Pring 1603," American Journeys Collection First Charter of Virginia

The English established a colony on the coast near today’s Phippsburg, Maine in 1607, only a couple of months after the founding of Jamestown. It would survive just over a year.  The Popham or Sagadahoc Colony was the culmination of several exploratory missions along the New England coast from approximately Cape Cod to Maine between 1602 and 1605.  In 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold, who would eventually die at Jamestown, led the first of those missions to the New England coast and gave several famous places names that we use today, including Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard.  His expedition would stay in the Elizabeth Islands, which shelter Buzzard's Bay in Massachusetts, for more than three weeks, and have extensive encounters with local indigenous peoples. The Gosnold narrative of those encounters has all sorts of interesting stuff! Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Selected references for this episode Henry Otis Thayer, The Sagadahoc Colony: Comprising the Relation of a Voyage Into New England Warner F. Gookin, "Who was Bartholomew Gosnold?", The William and Mary Quarterly, July 1949. A briefe and true relation of the discouerie of the north part of Virginia being a most pleasant, fruitfull and commodious soile: made this present yeere 1602, by Captaine Bartholomew Gosnold, Captaine Bartholowmew [sic] Gilbert, and diuers other gentlemen their associats, by the permission of the honourable knight, Sir Walter Ralegh, &c. Written by M. Iohn Brereton one of the voyage. 

It is 1580. Virtually no Spaniards have returned to New Mexico or the American southwest since the return of the remnants of the Coronado and Soto expeditions in 1542.  Neither had found a third great indigenous civilization to conquer, or even more than scant evidence of precious metals.  By 1580 most of the survivors of those expeditions had died, and the narratives produced in their aftermath would have been known to very few people. The most durable legacy of those expeditions would have been the rumors of gold, which always persist long after the actual facts are gone from living memory.  So it was that circa 1580 various aspirational conquistadors set to scheming for a return to the region that some were now dreaming of as “New Mexico.”  These new Spanish probes into the American southwest were minor affairs and of relatively little consequence, except insofar as they stirred up the Indians living in the Pueblos of the region and generated a new round of propaganda that would lead to the colonization project of Juan de Oñate y Salazar in 1598.  That would be of surpassing significance, for Oñate would stay for twelve years, kill a lot of Indians, found Santa Fe just before he departed, and establish the foundation of Spanish society in the southwestern United States. Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheHistoryOfTh2 Selected references for this episode George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, The Rediscovery of New Mexico, 1580-1594 (Coronado cuarto centennial publications, 1540-1940) Stan Hoig, Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate John L. Kessell, Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico J. Lloyd Mecham, "Antonio de Espejo and His Journey to New Mexico", The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, October 1926

In this episode we look at the tangled debate over the location of Drake's "fair and good bay." Was it in California? Or do we only believe that because of unbelievably unscrupulous behavior by famous California academics? We recount the story of Drake's "plate of brass," and discuss the connection between that fraud and the "Dare stone." Along the way we take a close look at academic conspiracy, California's "national myth," and the brilliant woman who revolutionized the history of Drake's circumnavigation only to be denounced by some of the leading lights in the profession of history. Finally, we consider the legacy of Sir Francis Drake, and the matter of changing the names of high schools. Oh, and the recording sounds a bit weird in places -- I recorded it in a hotel room in Boston, and had to edit out a rather noisy air handler in the background. There is nothing we won't do to bring you the podcast! Selected references for this episode Melissa Darby, Thunder Go North: The Hunt for Sir Francis Drake's Fair & Good Bay Samuel Bawlf, The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 Miranda Kaufmann, Black Tudors: The Untold Story Drake's Plate of Brass (Wikipedia) Dare Stones (Wikipedia)

This November, it has been 400 years since the traditional First Thanksgiving at Plymouth Colony - Patuxet in 1621. But the history of that collaborative feast of the English and the Wampanoag Indians was lost for more than 200 years. For most of that time, Americans celebrated "thanksgiving" all over the country at different days in the autumn, decreed by local and state governments, without knowing its origin story. This episode explores the conversion of thanksgiving from a local custom to a revered national holiday. Along the way, we learn about Sarah Josepha Hale, the remarkable woman to whom Americans owe the greatest debt for the holiday they will celebrate today. There were political objections to Thanksgiving, too, rooted in exactly the debates we have today after the proper role of the federal government, and how precisely to separate church and state. Finally, we learn about the central role of football on Thanksgiving, dating from Thanksgiving of 1873, only four years after the first college football game. By 1893, Americans were playing thousands of games of football across the country on Thanksgiving Day. Oh, and we should all be grateful that President Franklin Roosevelt didn't screw it all up, which he very nearly did. Selected references for this episode Melanie Kirkpatrick, Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience Melanie Kirkpatrick, "Don't Let Ideologues Steal Thanksgiving" "How the Great Colchester Molasses Shortage Nearly Ruined Thanksgiving" All the Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations 1789-2018 (pdf) The West Wing, "I get to proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving" The American Story Podcast: Sarah Josepha Hale EayJ2pIk9BVexKtZCSmd

This episode is off the timeline. We look at the various crimes against humanity to be found on "History Twitter," the idea of pursuing a "useable" history and the perils therein, whether we should reduce the Constitution to Twitter-friendly labels such as "pro-slavery" or "anti-slavery," and the disrespect many younger professors and graduate students show for the greatest historian of the American Revolution and the founding period, Brown University's Gordon Wood, who is still pumping out sharply written books in his late eighties and standing up for history as a discipline. I also talk about some other podcasts that I like. Oh, and it sounds slightly different because I have a new microphone in Austin and forgot to buy a foam cover for it. That will be fixed next time. Enjoy! References for this episode Gordon Wood, Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution Good Will Hunting (Bar Scene) The University of Austin Podcasts mentioned History of England Podcast Ben Franklin's World American Revolution Podcast The American Story [Abridged] Presidential Histories Civics and Coffee The History of North America Age of Jackson Podcast A New History of Old Texas Nudie Reads The Reason Roundtable The Fifth Column Podcast Making Sense by Sam Harris The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan Walk-Ins Welcome with Bridget Phetasy The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway Honestly with Bari Weiss

In this episode we wrap up loose ends before moving on down the timeline: What happened after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and what happened after John White left the Roanoke Colony in August 1587? We also see what happened to all those Elizabethan characters we've been talking about for the last three months, including Francis Drake, Elizabeth herself, John Hawkins, Martin Frobisher, Francis Walsingham, and Philip II. Finally, we explore the long-term consequences of both the Armada and the Roanoke Colony for the History of the Americans. Oh, and we read a poem in the spirit of the day. Selected references for this episode Garrett Mattingly, The Armada Robert Hutchinson, The Spanish Armada: A History 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 Paul E. Hoffman, "New Light on Vicente Gonzalez's 1588 Voyage in Search of Raleigh's English Colonies" Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) (Wikipedia) In Flanders Fields (Wikipedia) Neal Casal, "Virginia Dare" (Youtube, song)

At some point in the second week of August, 1588, a merchant ship from one of the cities of the Hanseatic League, sailing through the North Sea off the east coast of England, found itself surrounded, in the middle of nowhere, by a herd of horses and mules, swimming, with no land in sight anywhere. This is, among other matters of greater historical significance, the story of how those poor creatures ended up paddling frantically, and unsuccessfully, for their lives. We look again at the geopolitics of 1588, considered a "year of dire portent" in Europe for at least a hundred years, the struggle of the Armada to sail free of Iberia in some of the strangest summer weather old sailors had ever seen, the famous game of bowls, and the long fight up the English Channel as the Duke Medina Sidonia sailed to protect the Duke of Parma's invasion force which was to cross the Channel on barges. Oh, and we learn where Tolkien got the idea for the Beacons of Gondor. Selected references for this episode Garrett Mattingly, The Armada Robert Hutchinson, The Spanish Armada: A History

On July 29, 2024, President Joe Biden visited The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The President referred to LBJ as "master of the Senate," which reminded me of the opening pages of Robert Caro's book of the same name. That introduction is itself a masterful description of the suppression of Black voters in the South, the meaning of voting, the history of the Senate, its historical resistance to civil rights, and LBJ’s role in changing all that. It is also filled with interesting observations about timeless aspects of American politics, and since I enjoyed re-reading it I'm going to read it for you with some annotations along the way.  Oh, and it turns out that President Biden, who knows a thing or two about the Senate, left a few things out for the audience in Austin. Finally, I again recorded early in the morning outside in the Adirondacks, so there are a lot of tweeting birds in the background. Non-birdie recording will resume next time. X/Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the website) Robert A. Caro, Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Vol. 3) Remarks by President Biden Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act | Austin, TX The other volumes in Caro's biography (I highly recommend the first two, and haven't yet read the fourth): The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Vol. 1) Means of Ascent: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Vol. 2) The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Vol. 4)

On August 28, 1587, John White, the leader of the last Roanoke Colony, climbed on board Edward Spicer’s flyboat and returned to England. His mandate was to secure supplies and more settlers to reinforce the people he had left behind, who included his own daughter and granddaughter, Eleanor and Virginia Dare.  He would not in fact be able to return for almost three years, by which time the roughly 116 colonists back in North Carolina had vanished completely, leaving behind only scant clues. White would take three years to return because an undeclared but existential war had broken out between England and Spain, known to history as the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604. The war was existential not for England the country – had Philip II and Spain won the war, England would have continued to exist as a country, and in their daily lives most English people would have seen very little change. Philip II would have become King of England, as he had already been years before during his marriage to Mary Tudor, and the liturgy at church on Sunday would have changed in ways that we moderns would have regarded as hilariously trivial.  However, the war was existential for Elizabeth I and her Protestant elite who, among other things, sustained English naval power and supported North American colonization. It is very hard to imagine that an England ruled by Philip II and an entirely different batch of nobles, Catholic “recusants” emerged from the political shadows, would have settled North America.  Nor would there have been successful Protestant Dutch settlement, because the defeat of Elizabeth would also have meant the end of Dutch Protestantism as a political force. The city in that harbor discovered by Verrazzano more than sixty years before would more likely have been New Seville or New Lisbon than New Amsterdam or New York. Fortunately, the English had Sir Francis Drake, who in the spring of 1587 would raid the Spanish port of Cadiz and occupy Sagres roadstead off Cape St. Vincent, destroying more than 100 Spanish and Portuguese ships and boats and much of the supplies for the Spanish Armada. And then he would go on to grab a Portuguese treasure ship that would substantially bolster Elizabeth's finances just when she needed it most. Selected references for this episode Garrett Mattingly, The Armada Robert Hutchinson, The Spanish Armada: A History John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake Andrew Shepherd, "The Spanish Armada in Lisbon: preparing to invade England"

This episode looks at the fate of the 15 settlers Sir Richard Grenville had left on Roanoke Island in 1586, and the expedition of 1587, which Sir Walter Ralegh, John White, and more or less everybody else intended to land at Chesapeake Bay. They never got there, and after August 26, 1587, no English person would ever see them again. Oh, and we meet Virginia Dare! Link to the Merch! (Scroll down) 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 Mary Queen of Scots (2018) execution scene

We are back in the summer of 1585, and careful listeners could hear the ever louder drums of war between Spain and England. In this episode we tell the story of Drake’s voyage to the West Indies in 1585-86, which fundamentally ended with the rescue at Roanoke Colony.  There are three reasons why we are devoting an episode to Drake's West Indies expedition. First, it was this mission more than any other affront to Philip that made direct war between Spain and England inevitable. Without that war, and without the defeat of the Spanish Armada in the course of that war, it is far from clear that English settlement in North America would have unfolded as it did, or that it ever would have happened.  Second, Drake burned down St. Augustine and affected the course of the Roanoke Colony, both of which are decisively within the mandate of the podcast. Finally, Drake’s West Indies voyage was a great moment in military history, an extraordinary example of amphibious warfare long before we used that term. Oh. And please listen to the end -- I tackle a historical mystery and wonder if some of the academic historians who have written about it have done so ... carefully. Selected references for this episode John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake Angus Konstam, The Great Expedition: Sir Francis Drake on the Spanish Main 1585–86 Mary Frear Keeler (Editor), Sir Francis Drake's West Indian Voyage, 1585-86 (Hakluyt Society, Second Series) Michael Guasco, Slaves and Englishmen: Human Bondage in the Early Modern Atlantic World 3:10 to Yuma

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 Raleigh, 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

In the early 1660s, a motley crew of free-thinkers, republican veterans of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army, and Quakers would build the freest place in all the English world, the County of Albemarle in northeastern North Carolina. Protected from the north, and incursions by Virginia royalists, by the Great Dismal Swamp, from the east by the treacherous waters of the Outer Banks, and from Indians by the skilled diplomacy of fur trader Nathaniel Batts, the settlers would prosper as small farmers and free tradesmen. Their leaders would include John Jenkins, veteran of Fendall's Rebellion in Maryland, and a dissident Virginian planter and sheriff named William Drummond. Together they would resist attempts by the proprietors to exert control over their land and lives, and would extend the franchise to all free Englishmen in the colony. This is their story. X/Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the website) Noeleen McIlvenna, Early American Rebels: Pursuing Democracy from Maryland to Carolina, 1640-1700  Lindley S. Butler, A History of North Carolina in the Proprietary Era 1629-1729 Albemarle County, North Carolina Francis Yeardley Map of Albemarle County in context

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