Sir Francis Drake Essays - Francis Drake, Tudor England, Drake

Sir Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake was born in 1540. He was an English sea captain, navigator, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England gave Drake knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He was also the second man to successfully sail around the world. At age twenty-three, Drake made his first voyage to the New World. He sailed with his second cousin, Sir John Hawkins. In 1572 Drake took off on his first major expedition. He planned an attack on the Isthmus of Panama, which was the place where the silver and gold treasure of Peru had to be sent overland to the Caribbean Sea by the Spanish. His first raid was in July 1572. Drake and his men captured the town and its treasure. Drake?s men insisted on retreating when they noticed that he was bleeding from a wound. Drake stayed in the area for almost a year, raiding Spanish shipping and trying to capture a treasure shipment. Eventually in 1573 Drake and his crew attacked a Spanish mule train and discovered that they had captured nearly 20 tons of silver and gold. With the success of this Panama Isthmus raid, Elizabeth I of England sent Drake to start an expedition against the Spanish along the Pacific coast of the Americas. In 1579 Drake captured a Spanish ship carrying 80 pounds of gold and 26 tons of silver. This would be his most profitable capture. Drake would later go on to port in southern California before going west back to England. He left several men to keep this port secret from the Spanish, and to establish a small colony. He claimed California for England, and ultimately began the colonization of California. Of course nowadays, California is a very profitable and important state here in the US. We owe its origins to Sir Francis Drake.