The Factors That Motivated the European (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch and English in Particular) to Explore and Colonize North America and South America Concerned Material Gain and / or Religious Freedom.

Europeans came to America out of a desire for gold, God, and glory. Many notable explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortez traveled to the New World and encountered native populations. Columbus tried to convert

Before the English ventured to Roanoke Europeans explored and settled the New World. The Spanish were the most successful in settling the New World. They conquered most of Central and South America. Their main objective was to convert all of the Indians to Christianity. “Spain’s claim to posses the Americas was based on discovery, conquest, and settlement, but even more important, it was founded on the sacred enterprise of extending the Catholic faith to (in Spanish eyes) “barbarous” native peoples” (Horn 12).

During the period of Colonialism, the English settlers arrived in America from Europe looking for religious freedom, land and the opportunity for wealth. While the Spanish Settlers arrived at Hispaniola unexpectedly, like the English; however, the Spanish did not leave Europe because of religion persecution; rather, they wanted to expand their religious belief to the New Word. While in both the English and the Spanish colonization, the Indigenous people were oppressed and enslaved but the English took a different approach. Thereby, although both the English and the European colonized in order to obtain gold and silver to help their countries wealth, the Spanish explorers took a more forceful method of gaining land.

Spanish and English had similar motivations for exploration of the New World, such as gaining land, goods from the natives, and gold. However, their motivations also differ greatly. The Spanish conquistadors also gained slaves from the native people, as well as spreading the word of Christianity. The English settlers came to the New World to get away from the religious oppression in England and to practice religion freely, and to grow tobacco to send back to England. The Spanish gained much more land quickly because, upon landing in places like the Caribbean and Brazil, because of their conquering and enslaving of the natives. The English came to the New World much less prepared,

Throughout colonial time there were many beliefs, movements, and conquests that happened within many countries. One of them in which was the spiritual conquest of the Spanish and the Portuguese. This spiritual conquest would undoubtedly be carried over to the Americas. Due to religion being very important to both the Europeans and the Natives this lead to a conflict that cause fights, missions, and resistances to increase.

During the early stages of North America, the Spanish settlements in the Southwest and the English colonies contrasted from each other as a result of different resources, religion, and various other factors. In the 17th century, North America was just beginning colonization. In 1588, the Spanish attacked the English but were defeated because the English used different tactics that were swifter. Both the Spanish settlers and English were devoted to their religions. While the English were trying to decide what path of religion to follow, the Spanish had already choses Christianity as their dominant religion. Some Spanish missionaries were founded in California and Texas with the goal to Christianize the natives. The English

There were many pull factors to the New World ,however, those who settled in the New England colonies migrated for significant religious freedoms, primarily to be able to worship freely and spread the gospel. According to the textbook “Liberty,

By the early 1700’s Europeans began to migrate over to America in order to form their own colonies. The causes for colonization in America was for political, religious, and economic freedom. During this time Europeans found their way over to the Chesapeake and New England regions. America was a developing country at this time, it had no real unified order, nor any actual power and yet why would the Europeans choose to colonize here?

There were many motivations for English colonists to settle in North America, but the main motivation was for freedom. Their main freedoms were from the English church, this includes the Puritans and the Separatists. There were others that wanted the freedom for an adventure and economic gain. Of all the motivations listed, they all lead back to freedom, making it the main reason people went to settle in North America.

North America had completely opposite perspectives regarding religion. The Spanish Settlers were Catholic. They aimed to introduce Catholicism to the Native Americans. Spanish missionaries saw Native Americans as heathens to be converted to Christianity; meanwhile, Spanish soldiers viewed them as fit only for killing or subjugation. The Spanish conquistadors, instead of focusing on making permanent settlements, focused on converting the Native Americans to Catholicism and seizing precious goods, especially precious metal and wealth from the Native Americans.The New England colonists were largely Puritans, who led very strict lives. The Middle colonists were a mixture of religions, including Quakers, Catholics,

Most countries during the Colonial Era were ruled by a monarchy claiming only one religion to be true and enforcing that religion on the people under their rule. Some of the first settlers came from Britain, where Catholicism was forced upon each citizen, whether it was what they believed or not. Religious freedom was a rare liberty the settlers longed for, causing them to leave their home country to come to the new world in hopes of gaining the freedom they desired. Yet, even though the Europeans resented having a ruler tell them what religions were “wrong” and what religion they had to be believe, various groups of settlers still came to America and told the Indians their religion was wrong and forcefully attempted to convert the Indians to their own beliefs. It was many years after they arrived that the settlers finally established an official law giving religious freedom to all

Religion played a key role in colonial America and caused a great deal of conflict and confusion among the colonist. There were religions in the New World that did not tolerate each other. Some people, like the Quakers, wanted religious freedom from the Puritans. Some people believed in strange superstitions that alienated non-believers. Some people believed government and religion should be the same although government eventually became separated from religion. If the New World in the colonies was to be successful for the most people, the conflict between the many religions would have to be addressed.

According to the textbook, the two main reasons for English colonist coming to the Americas were for gold, and religious freedom. The lack of economic opportunity, combined with the stories of gold mines made America sound very enticing. Religious freedom was also very important to the Englishmen, which only made life in the Americas sound more promising. In England, they were forced to be part of the Church of England, which many people did not like because of how they handled their affairs.

Religion helped early settlers become a unified society in early America. People who first immigrated to America really valued the Christian religion. Since the early settlers did not have any set laws or government, Christianity gave early people a guide in the new world. The two set guides that they followed was the Law of Nature and the Law of the gospel. First, the law of the gospel motivated Christians to be different than others. They are different because they did good to everyone in their community and welcomed strangers that had no place to go. A main rule that goes with the law of the gospel was that a real Christian will love his neighbor just as much as himself which is stated in the article “A Model of Christianity”. Governor John Winthrop states “By the first of these laws, man as he was enabled so withal is commanded to love his neighbor as himself.” This proves how

After the Americas’ existence became known to Europeans and the wealth that they contained, European states became extremely interested in making as much profit from the Americas as possible. Spain is among the first European nations to begin to send what is called conquistadors to the Americas for the reasons as the Spaniards said to teach the native population Christianity, for glory for the Spain, and as well to gain material riches from the discovery of precious and valuable metals such as gold. Coming and settling in the Americas were not easy tasks. The conquistadors attempted, with some success to for the native population to labor in their behalf, but this eventually proved to be a failure. Spaniards needed to fill that labor