Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on when you are reading this. I hope that this day is finding you very well. I am working through my documentary list and I am working on a documentary from the History Makers series. The run time of this documentary is 55:09.
Francis Drake was one of the first people to circumnavigate the globe on the Golden Hind. Drake was a fearless sailor and clever. The English aristocracy employed the sailor to collect wealth through plunder and the slave trade. Drake was considered a brave hero in the Elizabethan era. However to the Spanish he was a pirate who was to be arrested. The story begins with the reign of Queen Mary I. The English had no interest in exploration and the French and Spanish capitalize on the lack of English interest. Even English explorer Cabot was ignored and so the French would take initiative in North America. The Spanish would take the lead in claiming more and more land for their growing Empire. It was amongst this time Sir Francis Drake was born. He was born to a protestant family who were persecuted by Queen Mary. The Drakes would be driven out of their home county and into another church. His father would eventually become a church vicar. He would grow up detesting Catholicism. Queen Elizabeth would become queen, ending the persecution. Slowly England would recover and carefully avoided outright war. It was the era of the privateer and sailors would become skilled pirates. The privateers would make expeditions. Francis Drake would learn his craft on board these ships. He would get together with his cousin John Hawkins, whose family was financing voyages to West Africa. I found myself drifting in this section and all of a sudden the types of ships were being discussed. A new ship type evolved during these time and they were faster than what had originally been built. Suddenly there was a discussion on the defeat of Drake at the hands of the Spanish. Some of his sailors were executed. He would never trust the Spanish again. Drake never forgot and vowed to seek revenge. Drake would spend his time in Atlantic and would raid Spanish ships. He would add to his fleet of ships. He would defy Queen Elizabeth I, who wanted to keep things friendly. However, he kept attacking the Spanish ships and would gain treasure for the crown. During this time, he would lay his eyes on the Pacific Ocean. He vowed to sail on those seas. He would take treasure. Eventually Spanish and English relations would deteriorate to the point where Queen Elizabeth would summon Drake. I got confused at this section, I thought it was a discussion on Drake planning on more raids against Spanish Colonies instead of a discussion on circumnavigating the globe. In 1577, Drake and his ships would set out on an expedition. The location was secret. The crew was uneasy about their destination. Drake was the sole commander of this expedition. I still felt unclear about this section, was this about sailing around the world? Anyway, a restlessness arose among the crew and there was a near munity against Drake during this time. Drake’s authority was questioned and so Drake put the mutineers on trial. I still was not clear about the purpose of the voyage when there was a discussion about raiding because it seemed that it was implied that Drake would be go around the world. Eventually because Drake figured the Spanish would ambush him, only then this section became clear that it would become an around the world trip. After his return, there was a discussion on Drake and his accomplishments afterwards. He would eventually be called back into service again. To learn more about this part of his life, continue to watch the rest of the documentary. This documentary had a very old feel to it. Although the information was good, I found myself drifting periodically through the documentary. It could be good for research purposes. However, I would not show this to a history class. It was very confusing at some points, and I feel like a student would be confused as to what they were watching.
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The purpose of this blog is to share information on what can be used in a classroom, private school, or home school setting as well as serve as a portfolio of my personal and professional work. The reviews are my opinions and should be treated as such. I just want to provide a tool for teachers to select documentaries for their classrooms. |