Sources

Jamestown, the first permanent British colony in North America, is founded in modern Virginia.

First Charter of Virginia granted.

William Shakespeare’s play Othello: the Moor of Venice first performed.

Charter of Acadia granted by Henry IV of France to Pierre du Gast, Sieur de Monts.

Pedro Gomes Reinal dies. The Spanish slave-trading monopoly is passed to Jaão Rodrigues Coutinho, Governor of Angola.

Francis Bacon writes On Plantations which becomes an important early text of British colonial discourse.

Queen Elizabeth I of England sends a letter complaining about the number of blacks in the realm by which a group of slaves were rounded up and given to a German slave trader, Caspar van Senden, in ‘payment’ for duties he had performed.

Philip II of Spain grants Pedro Gomes Reinal, a Portuguese merchant, a near monopoly in the slave trade. Reinal agrees to provide Spanish America with 4250 African slaves annually, with a further 1000 slaves being provided by other merchants.

L’Espérance of La Rochelle becomes the first French ship positively identified as participating in the slave trade.

Bernard Ericks becomes the first Dutch slave trader.

The failure of the Spanish Armada (an intended Spanish invasion of England, largely destroyed by bad weather) provides a boost for English maritime power and for English colonial ambitions.

A second English colony is founded at Roanoke Island, again organized by Sir Walter Raleigh. When it is revisited by English ships in August 1590, it has vanished without trace.