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American History
Introduction to Richard Hakluyt's Western Planning, 1584
Richard Hakluyt devoted his life to recording every
piece of evidence that could contribute to English
participation in the colonization of the New World.
He listened to the tales of returning voyagers and repeated them for a broad
reading audience. He supported the adventures of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and
Sir Walter Raleigh; he urged England to confront
Spain and claim the great rewards of "raysing trades"
and other profits that England could have if it applied itself with zeal
and purposefulness to colonization. Stern anti-Catholic arguments of
Protestant England - the Spanish flinging overboard English prayer
books and the like - complemented the political and
economic arguments for planting English colonies in
the New World.
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