Promoting England/Britain: Rhetoric, Learning, and Advice in the Early Modern Colonization of the Western Atlantic

This paper will examine how the early modern English and British positioned themselves in terms of learning and knowledge in relation to other colonial powers such as Portugal, Spain, France and the Netherlands in the colonization of the Americas. What uses of rhetoric and of learning did English advisors and writers use to persuade rulers, courtiers, investors and readers? How did they frame the past and present of other empires to make their case for the development of England and then Britain? In this comparative method, owing to the brevity of a panel paper, I will focus on the problem of error. How does England (Britain) correct its errors to take up its destiny as a great and perhaps the pre-eminent empire? How do Protestantism, trade, and liberty allow for a new way forward that should make up for lost ground and mistakes and establish this dream of empire? I will focus on evidence primarily from Gilbert, Ralegh, Hakluyt, Purchas and their successors in the genre.