[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-129843-en":3,"doc-seo-129843-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},129843,962085564807,"Aurelia","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8",8,"Research & Report","The Invention of Colonialism - Richard Hakluyt and Medieval Travel Writing","This Element argues that Richard Hakluyt’s relevance to England’s emerging colonial ideology was not only a matter of how he applied medieval texts; it shows that premodern travel materials already carried the core logic of expansionist mercantilism and colonialist imperialism. The book advances three connected claims: Hakluyt and contemporaries read medieval travel writing more closely than credited, English colonial ideology was formed in the late medieval period, and periodisation theories emphasizing rupture face new pressure.","Travel Writing  \nThe Invention of Colonialism  \nSebastian Sobecki  \nISSN 2632-7090 (online) ISSN 2632-7082 (print)  \nElements in Travel Writing  \nedited by  \nNandini Das  \nUniversity of Oxford  \nTim Youngs  \nNottingham Trent University  \nTHE INVENTION OF COLONIALISM  \nRichard Hakluyt and Medieval Travel Writing  \nSebastian Sobecki  \nUniversity of Toronto  \nShaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8EA, United Kingdom One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA  \n477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia  \n314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India  \n103 Penang Road, \\#05–06/07, Visioncrest Commercial, Singapore 238467  \nCambridge University Press is part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a department of the University of Cambridge.  \nWe share the University’s mission to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.  \n[www.cambridge.org](www.cambridge.org)  \nInformation on this [title:](title: www.cambridge.org/9781009644099)[ www.cambridge.org/9781009644099](title: www.cambridge.org/9781009644099)[ ](title: www.cambridge.org/9781009644099)DOI: 10. 1017/9781009338486  \n© Sebastian Sobecki 2025  \nThis publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press & Assessment.  \nWhen citing this work, please include a reference to the DOI 10.1017/9781009338486  \nFirst published 2025  \nA catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library  \nISBN 978-1-009-64409-9 Hardback  \nISBN 978-1-009-33847-9 Paperback  \nISSN 2632-7090 (online)  \nISSN 2632-7082 (print)  \nCambridge University Press & Assessment has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,  \naccurate or appropriate.  \nFor EU product safety concerns, contact us at Calle de José Abascal, 56, 1°, 28003 Madrid, Spain, or email [eugpsr@cambridge.org](eugpsr@cambridge.org)  \nThe Invention of Colonialism Richard Hakluyt and Medieval Travel Writing  \nElements in Travel Writing  \nDOI: 10.1017/9781009338486  \nFirst published online: July 2025  \nSebastian Sobecki  \nUniversity of Toronto  \nAuthor for correspondence: Sebastian Sobecki, [sebastian.sobecki@utoronto.ca](sebastian.sobecki@utoronto.ca)  \nAbstract: This Element argues that it was not just the application of medieval texts by Richard Hakluyt that made them relevant for England’s budding colonial ideology; rather, it shows that these premodern texts already conveyed the essence of the expansionist mercantilism and colonialist imperialism that would characterise early English exceptionalism and the Elizabethan reach for the Americas. The upshot of the author ’s argument is threefold. First, Hakluyt and his contemporaries were much better and closer readers of medieval travel texts than we give them credit for; second, the ideology behind English colonialism was shaped in the late medieval period, not in Elizabethan England; and third, another facet of periodisation, with its epistemological emphasis on rupture rather than continuity, comes under pressure.  \nKeywords: colonialism in the Americas, British Empire, medieval literature, travel writing, Richard Hakluyt  \n© Sebastian Sobecki 2025  \nISBNs: 9781009644099 (HB), 9781009338479 (PB), 9781009338486 (OC)  \nISSNs: 2632-7090 (online), 2632-7082 (print)  \nContents  \nIntroduction: England’s Sphere of Influence 1  \n1 Mandeville’s Hegemonic Gaze and Hakluyt’s Multi-Text 10  \n2 A Blueprint for Colonialism: The Discourse Concerning Western Planting (1584) and The Libelle ofEnglyshe Polycye (1436) 28  \n3 Edgar ’s Archipelago Revisited: Hakluyt, John Dee,  \nand the Four Seas ","cbCaihfyFNbNmRKa","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihfyFNbNmRKa","pdf",3019021,4,1,78,"English","en",105,"# Introduction: England’s Sphere of Influence\n## Mandeville’s Hegemonic Gaze and Hakluyt’s Multi-Text\n## A Blueprint for Colonialism: The Discourse Concerning Western Planting (1584) and The Libelle of Englyshe Polycye (1436)\n## Edgar ’s Archipelago Revisited: Hakluyt, John Dee, and the Four Seas of Britain\n## Afterword: The Ends of Edgar ’s Archipelago\n## References","[{\"question\":\"What central argument does The Invention of Colonialism make?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that medieval travel texts already contained the essential substance of mercantilist expansion and colonialist imperialism, making them relevant to England’s colonial ideology beyond Hakluyt’s later use of them.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the Element define colonialism?\",\"answer\":\"It follows the Oxford English Dictionary, treating colonialism as governing other territories with settlers and maintaining colonies, with settler colonialism seen as largely redundant because colonialism’s physical forms typically involve settlers.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the book’s claims address periodisation and historical rupture?\",\"answer\":\"It contends that a rupture-focused model of periodisation—emphasizing epistemological breaks—comes under pressure, because key ideological elements are traced back to the late medieval period rather than Elizabethan England.\"}]","The Invention of Colonialism - 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