How Did The Spanish Armada A Mercantilism

Natalya Clasen
Mercantilism
The defeat of the Spanish Armada by Queen Elizabeth the first marked the major shifting period of expansion and trade for Great Britain. With this defeat, Elizabeth promoted the Navigation Acts designed to expand British trade and limit trade with Great Britain’s rivals, primarily the Dutch. This new era changed history in the way things, ideas, and people got around and thus mercantilism emerged from the development of the navy in order to defeat the Spanish Armada. Although mercantilism did provide new opportunities that helped connect England and its North American colonies, the mercantilism system proved useful only for the colonies to gain freedom and not for England to keep its rule over them. When Charles
King James prompted more regulations and mercantilism changed to imperial supremacy. James the second revokes the charter of the Massachusetts Bay colony, which was in place due to intentional smuggling and out of it he creates the Dominion of New England. King James no longer was going to tolerate the smuggling and ended the period of salutary neglect. He placed immense power onto the Lords of Trade and Edmond Andros in order to restore “stability” between the English and the colonies. Andros acted as governor and was in charge during this time. He ruled unfairly however and revoked virtually all rights to self-rule, which the colonists had grown used to. Andros was able to do this due to the fact that James the second is in power, therefore so is he. Meanwhile in England, King James is taxing the country immensely creating extreme tension for the British as well. Then the Glorious Revolution occurs in England and James is overthrown by William of Orange and Charles the second’s daughter Mary. While all of this is occurring, slavery has already developed throughout the West Indies and the colonies. As the demand for raw materials such as tobacco, sugar, and cotton increased, so did the need for workers. This is when indentured servants changed to African slaves bought and traded on the slave trading west coast of Africa. The triangular trade not only increased a rise in the slave population, it also increased the merchant population, which formed a class of wealthy elites that dominated trade and politics throughout the colonies. As time continues in the colonies, so does their desire to feel the freedom they once did when they were so successful at avoiding the Navigation Acts. This later leads to the Revolutionary War, which ends up in the independence of the North American