Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/517

SOME ENGLISH COXDITIOXS SURROUXDIXG THE SETTLEMEXT OF MRGINIA To Americans the settlement of Jamestown presents itself as something unique, the birth of the nation, the first scene in the drama of American history. Looked at from the European side, however, it was but a single occurrence connected with a long line of preceding events and surrounded by a group of others with which it had mutual relations. Under the conditions existing in England at the beginning of the seventeenth century the establish- ment of the 'irginia colony was the natural next step to take, and its form reflected the group of influences active there. In these times of reminiscence it may be of interest to examine more closely some of the steps that led up to the formation of the 'irginia Company and some of the contemporar- circumstances under which the set- tlement was made. England came late into the colonizing movement. The example of two great colonial empires had long been before her. When the settlement of 1607 took place, more than a century had passed since the nearly contemporary voyages of Vasco da Gama in 1497 and of Columbus in 1492 had established the dominion of Portugal and of Spain respectively in the East and the West Indies. In the years immediately succeeding 1497 the Portuguese government, in a wonderful series of naval and trading expeditions, extended its dominion along the coasts of the Indian Ocean far beyond what would have seemed inherently possible for so small a nation. . line of able commanders not only successfully fought Indian, Arab, and Turkish fleets and the armies of petty Indian rajahs and island chieftains, but carried out a policy of seizing and holding the stra- tegical military and commercial ports that soon gave them virtual command of all the Eastern seas. By 1520 the east coast of Africa, the land at the outlet of the Persian Gulf, the west coast of India, the island of Ceylon, Java, and the Spice Islands were lined by a scattered series of Portuguese fortified stations, and most of the princes of these regions had been forced to accept dependent al- liances with the king of Portugal. From Ouiloa and Alombassa on the African coast, through Ormuz, Diu, Goa, and Calicut, to Malacca and the Spice Islands, no vessel could trade without a (507)