The National Archives | Education | British Empire | Rise of the British Empire | North America

The National Archives > Education > British Empire




		North America covers a very large area, from the Arctic areas of Newfoundland to the tropical lands of the Caribbean. Despite this, by the late 1700s British traders, soldiers, sailors, administrators and settlers could be found all over this huge area. So what drove English, Scots, Irish and Welsh men and women to travel across the Atlantic? Look at the background and the sources in this case study and see what you can discover about their motives.


	Use the Worksheet to record what you find out. The Background will give you an introduction to the rise of the British empire in North America.




1. Complaint about tax on sugar refining, 1691		2. Proposal to claim lands for England, c.1690		3. English forts in North America, 1699		4. Request from Native Americans for guns, 1752



5. Report on growing silk in Georgia, 1752		6. Report on the Seven Years War, 1759		7. Plans for a British citadel, Quebec, 1767		8. Extract from the Townshend Acts, 1767



9. British map of America, 1757