Why England failed to take the initiative in the colonization of the American continent?

Introduction:

Many Americans consider England to be their parent country, however the fact is that the british were the last of the Europeans to colonize America. by the time, british arrived in u.s.a, most of modern south west including texas and California was in the control of the spain.france had domination over applachain mountains. in the 16th century, superpower was not Britain rather it was spain. After the discovery of u.s.a by Christopher Columbus, spain along with portugual colonized much of the America.

There are many reasons for the british tardiness in this matter
a) lack of interest: john cabot had visited u.s.a on the behalf of the british after the discovery of Christophe coloumbus. However, u.s.a did not appeal to the british and so they refrained from colonizing it.

b) British sea captains: many of the british sea captains felt that it was easy to plunder and loot Spanish ships and get money, rather than, colonizing large parts of the new world.

c) Spanish domination: in 16th century, spain dominated the world. This domination also enabled them to colonize new world and bring ships loaded with gold and silver to their home country. The british in the 16th century were not strong enough to colonize the far off land.

d) British involvement in foreign ventures: at the time, when Spanish and French were invading the new land, british were busy in india. They considered india to be “golden sparrow”. Indian commodities such as perfume, spices, silk held a lot of demand for the british.

e) Seadogs: sea dogs was the name given to the british sea captains who worked on the behalf of Elizabeth. They were aimed at harassing Spanish colonizers. These sea captains were expert in their work. they were the major reason for a showdown between the English and the Spanish.

British and Spanish war:
British were attracted to the wealth of the new land and so their interest increased in America. In order to establish their foothold on strong grounds, british queen employed sea mariners who harassed Spanish colonizers leading to animosity between the two nations.
A strong Spanish armada , well equipped with latest technology prepared to attack and destroy the English. The English ships, though fewer in number were also shorter in size. They could more flexible in movement then the Spanish ships. By the luck of a storm, the british were able to defeat spainsh armada. This war was important as it marked the end of the Spanish domination in U.S and the beginning of the English in the new world.