Discourse Concerning Western Planting was a document written by Richard Hakluyt in 1584.[1]
This document was written to convince Queen Elizabeth I to support the colonization schemes of Walter Raleigh and to encourage English merchants and gentry to invest in those enterprises.[2]
Richard Hakluyt presented the work privately to the queen in 1584. The private character of the memorial, which was not to be seen by the general eye, permitted Hakluyt to state freely the case for a colonial policy. Such freedom was necessary If the Discourse were to discuss with any adequacy the great political obstacle to colonizing, the fear of Spain; and to the case against Spain a good half of the Discourse was dedicated. Hakluyt was apparently well fortified with argument by his naval friends, who seem to have belonged to the aggressive school of Drake. He devoted several sections to the already familiar idea of a colony as a naval outpost. Given an American base, the argument ran, there was opened an easy channel to the West Indies, a channel for attack on the forts on land or for a swoop on the fleet carrying home American treasure. There was opened also a channel for a descent on the Spaniards who haunted the northern fishing banks and who supplied Spain with some of its food. With the resource of a colony England could strike at will at the root of Spanish power, which lay overseas.[3]