Drake Circumnavigates Globe
Francis Drake's voyage around the world, which began in 1577 and ended in 1580, made him the first English captain to circumnavigate the globe and the second commander, after the expedition begun by Ferdinand Magellan, to lead a ship around it. Although the voyage is often described as an exploring venture, it was above all a raiding expedition against Spain, and it brought a fortune to its backers and embarrassment to Spanish authorities. It also helped establish England's growing ambitions at sea.
The background was the rivalry between Protestant England and Catholic Spain, which claimed exclusive rights to the Pacific coast of the Americas. Spanish settlements there were lightly defended because few expected hostile ships to appear so far from Europe. Drake had already attacked Spanish interests in the Caribbean in the early 1570s, and he gained support for a bolder plan. Queen Elizabeth I is generally believed to have backed the venture, though its exact aims and the extent of her involvement remain debated by historians.
Drake left Plymouth in December 1577 with several ships, among them the one later renamed the Golden Hind. After crossing the Atlantic, the fleet entered the Strait of Magellan in 1578. Storms scattered the squadron, and in the end only Drake's ship carried on into the Pacific. He then raided Spanish ports along the coasts of Chile and Peru, seizing supplies and treasure. His most famous prize was a richly laden Spanish ship, the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, often nicknamed Cacafuego, which carried large quantities of silver.
Drake then sailed north to the coast of North America, where he landed somewhere in what is now California or possibly farther north. The exact location of his anchorage is still disputed. He claimed the territory for England, calling it Nova Albion, before crossing the Pacific, passing through the Indonesian islands, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, and returning to Plymouth in September 1580.
The voyage was very profitable, and investors are said to have received an extraordinary return. Elizabeth knighted Drake aboard his ship in 1581, despite Spanish protests that he was a pirate. For Spain, the raid exposed the vulnerability of its Pacific empire and fed tensions that helped lead to open war in the 1580s, including the Spanish Armada of 1588. For England, Drake became a national hero and a symbol of maritime enterprise, though many today also view his career in the context of plunder and the violent rivalries of early colonial expansion.