8.2 What motivated Britain's first colonists?

We’re taking on ocean voyages from Britain to south-east Asia; the coasts of Africa; and to the Americas, or so-called ‘New World’. Some places might have seemed like a ‘New World’ to Britain’s first colonists – but they weren’t so new to the people who had been living there for centuries.

This video looks at the motivations of Britain’s first colonists, and motivations of the people they met on their journeys.

Lesson highlights:

• The ideas, relationships, and rivalries that contributed to the Age of Exploration
• Analysis of how English leaders and sailors contributed to the Age of Exploration, laying the foundations of future colonisation.
• A look at the motivations and actions of people who met the first colonists on their journeys