today we're looking at the Lost Colony of Roanoke hello welcome to The Daily bellringer
please don't forget to subscribe and take a look at the questions down in the description so ever
since Christopher Columbus made his voyage to the new world in 1492 Europeans had continued
to travel across the Atlantic Ocean in search of new resources and economic opportunity throughout
the mid 1500s European powers such as the French and the Spanish conducted voyages that mapped out
and charted the eastern coast of what would eventually become the United States but no
permanent colony or settlement was established a colony is just simply a group of people that
establish a settlement or community in a place separate from their home country but
still remain untied or under the control of their home country Sir Walter Raleigh who was
a wealthy English adventure and was romantically involved with the Queen of England Elizabeth the
first in 1584 asked Elizabeth for permission to establish an English colony in America permission
was granted to Raleigh and Raleigh was hoping to gain riches from the land that he required
in the new world and you know we have to remember that for Europeans land equalled
wealth and so that's really what they were you know after here in the new world but in April
of 1580 for Raleigh dispatch two ships to locate and map a suitable location for a new colony the
expedition returned and suggested Roanoke Island located on the Outer Banks of present-day North
Carolina they noted that the island itself was ten miles long two and a half miles wide at fertile
soil thick woods which were filled with game to hunt and inhabited by friendly Native Americans
that would help the colonists the exhibition also brought back rumors of gold further inland which
very much intrigued Sir Walter Raleigh in April of 1585 Raleigh sent more ships to attempt to
begin settlement in the summer of eight of 1585 a hundred and eight soldiers established a fort
on Roanoke Island and the ships then returned to England to get more supplies and settlers to
bring back in the meantime the soldiers at Roanoke conducted several expeditions and discovered the
mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and they concluded that the colony should be moved there because
there was deeper water that would be easier for English ships to to dock there and so by the time
the ships returned in June of 1586 the fort at Roanoke had to actually be abandoned because of
fighting with Native Americans in the area also a hurricane hit which forced them to head back to
England rather than move up towards the Chesapeake Bay the Explorers returned and reported to Raleigh
what they had found of course more rumors of gold and so determined to get a colony established
Raleigh organized a final expedition in April of 1587 this voyage was commanded by John White who
had been on the two previous trips and it carried with it 118 men women and children and their goal
was to reach the Chesapeake Bay and establish a settlement there however they wound up again on
Roanoke Island without reaching Chesapeake Bay the settlers began building of you know a community
there on the island in the meantime John White decided to return back to England to get more
supplies and settlers and he actually left his wife and children behind and upon returning to
England he found that England was involved in a war with Spain and that Queen Elizabeth was
requiring that all ships be used in the fight and so white was unable to return to Roanoke Island
for three years the English did eventually defeat the Spanish Armada which really opened the way for
further exploration by English ships in the New World Wight returned to the island in 1590 only
to find that the colony had completely disappeared then this is of course has given rise to one of
the greatest mysteries in American history what happened to the colony on Roanoke Island the only
clue white and the other explorers could find was carved in trees around where the settlement was
the word Croatoan and the letter CRO were found this suggested to white that the settlers had
moved to Croatoan Island which was 50 miles south of Roanoke white attempted to reach the island but
a storm drove him out to sea and he was unable to get there and he actually then just returned
to England from there Raleigh basically formed no more expeditions and in fact Raleigh himself
was put to death for treason against King James the first in 1618 now many theories have emerged
through the years as to what happen to the Roanoke colony one theory suggests that part of the colony
did move to Croatoan island while another part moved further north to the Chesapeake Bay area
another theory is that the people integrated with the Native Americans and simply became part of
their community and move further inland while another theory suggests that they might have
been attacked and wiped out by Native American tribes in the area before they even attempted
to leave Roanoke Island another idea suggests that they possibly attempted to build ships and
returned to England but sank somewhere along the journey still another theory argues that they did
move north towards the chesapeake bay area but were likely killed in 1607 when jamestown was
established and the Powerton tribe were threatened by those settlers it may be a mystery that will
never ever be solved but it does demonstrate how dangerous establishing colonies in the new world
was and how it would take a long time for English colonies to really become permanent but still
to this day there's research and archaeological you know teams that are finding new evidence and
searching for an answer to this big mystery but what do you think what happened to the
colony on Roanoke Island so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching