The Roanoke Colony was England's the first initiative to found a permanent settlement in North America in what is now Dare's County, North Carolina. Also referred to as the Lost Colony, the settlement on Roanoke Island was attempted in 1585. Many members of the expedition returned to England due to lack of supplies and tense relations with Native Americans less than a year later. By the time a second expedition returned in 1590, the entire colony went missing, and no bodies or pieces of archaeological evidence have ever been found.
The English had several key motivations for colonizing the New World. Spain had already begun to profit on colonization in North America, and it was a means of increasing England's comparative wealth by expanding mercantilism and trade for resources such as gold, silver, and timber. The two countries were engaged in an ongoing Anglo-Spanish war, and England sought to establish military capabilities in the New World and direct wealth and resources to the conflict.
It also provided employment for non-landowning Englishmen and wage laborers. Additionally, the English were searching for a passage to the Pacific Ocean and wished to spread the influence of Protestant Christianity.
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