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Elizabeth and America
As England struggled with Spain, Elizabeth and her subjects saw that America was a huge strategic asset for Spain, supplying it with gold and silver to finance its military might. But it was also Spain’s soft underbelly, with a long, thinly-defended coast line and even longer trans-Atlantic supply lines, which were vulnerable to England’s skilled sea captains, including Sir Francis Drake. English investors (with the direct or covert involvement of Elizabeth herself) attempted to establish colonies of English settlers who could trade directly with the Spanish, or send back to England their own commodities of sugar, ginger and tobacco.
  
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