<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> By a brilliant maneuver young James Wolfe conquered “impregnable” Quebec—and secured North America for the English-speaking peoples</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck">“To push back the consciousness of American beginnings, beyond Jamestown, beyond the Pilgrims, to the highwater mark of the Elizabethan Age” -- Part One of a New Series.</span> </p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle">The Elizabethans and America: Part II -- The fate of the Virginia Colony rested on the endurance of adventurers, the financing of London merchants, and the favor of a courtier with his demanding spinster Queen.</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> A domino theory, distant wilderness warfare, the notion of “defensive enclaves,” hawks, doves, hired mercenaries, possible intervention by hostile powers, a Little trouble telling friendly natives from unfriendly—George</span> III <span class="typestyle"> went through the whole routine</span> </span></p>
<p><span class="deck">Those who believe that America’s power is on the wane look to the example of Britain’s shockingly quick collapse. But the similarities may be less alarming than they seem.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">In 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Britain’s poorest, most dismal African colony, and what he saw there fired him with a fervor that helped found the United Nations.</span></p>
<p>After the French and Indian War, Britain reimagined North America and created hundreds of maps to bring about that vision after having gained vast new territories.</p>
<p>Four hundred years ago this year, two momentous events happened in Britain’s fledgling colony in Virginia: the New World’s first democratic assembly convened, and an English privateer brought kidnapped Africans to sell as slaves. Such were the conflicted origins of modern America.</p>
