ABSTRACT
In 1584, Richard Hakluyt, a well-known proponent of English overseas expansion, wrote a treatise extolling the bene ts of English expansion in North America. In ‘A Discourse on Western Planting’, he highlighted the bene ts of English activities in the north Atlantic through three arguments: the bene ts of trade, the potential land available, and the importance of expansion in order to ‘greately annoye’ the ‘proud and hatefulle Spaniardes’ (Hakluyt and Deane, 1877: 55). Each of these points reveals how the English perceived the world beyond Europe and Peter Mancall considers the text to represent ‘a comprehensive rationale for expansion’ (2007: 155). While the development of expansion did not follow Hakluyt’s plans, the plans do represent how the English understood the world. England was on the periphery of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires that dominated the Atlantic by the end of the seventeenth century, and English activities were often attempts to engage or compete with this existing, complex system.
