Richard Hakluyt’s “Diverse Voyages” (1582) and England’s Search for the Northwest Passage

Abstract

In this article the author focuses on the first English compendium of information about the Americas and voyages in the North Atlantic, published by Richard Hakluyt in 1582. Unlike his major work, “The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation”, Hakluyt's earlier publishing project received little attention in academic literature. His “Diverse Voyages” has been interpreted by modern scholars as part of a propaganda campaign in favour of the establishment of English colonial settlements in North America. However, an analysis of all the texts selected by Hakluyt, the way they are organised, the author's comments and references to sources, shows that at that stage his main interest was the quest for the Northwest Passage to China and India. This global political project was designed to generate commercial profit and strengthen England's position in competition with the leading maritime empires of the era, Spain and Portugal. By presenting to the world the totality of English achievements in the exploration of the northern hemisphere, Hakluyt's first publication was instrumental in promoting English maritime expansion and in shaping English national identity. At the same time, Hakluyt's compendium, the first English adaptation of this particular form of scientific literature, marked an important stage in the development of geographical knowledge of the world, particularly of the New World, and in the evolution of the compiler's own views on polar voyages across the Atlantic.