The founding of the first colonies: The rise and fall of Sir Walter Raleigh

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Münster (Englisches Seminar), course: Literature and the Nation in Elizabethan England, language: English, abstract: Brief Introduction into Elizabethan England: the importance of nation, society and religion The reign of Queen Elizabeth I is probably the most powerful period within Tudor times. During her reign, the English nation arose to a worldwide renowned empire due to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the first English circumnavigation of the globe by Sir Francis Drake, the chartering of the first companies for overseas trade in India and the founding of the first colony, Virginia, by Sir Walter Raleigh. During that period of time, all this has been documented in maps, letters and literature, e.g. poems and early travel novels that give us an impression of the English nation formation and the first attempts of colonisation at that time, although it might include fiction. One central figure who had not only the dream of exporting the English nation to America and of promoting its greatness worldwide, but was also a soldier, a sailor, a Member of Parliament, a courtier, a contemporary writer and a poet, was Sir Walter Raleigh.