Elizabeth I
During her reign, many men sought adventure abroad. Elizabeth rented a slave ship to John Hawkins and gave him weapons and equipment to keep slave trading. Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, Humphrey Gilbert, and other "sea dogs" looted Spanish ships. They also sailed to the Americas. In 1580, Drake became the first Englishman to sail around the world. The expeditions of these men prepared England to join the age of discovery and international trade and owning other parts of the world. In 1600, Elizabeth herself founded a trading company known as the East India Company that became an important tool of the British Empire.