Preview

How Did Religion Influence Colonization

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1026 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Religion Influence Colonization
religion and colonization
Religion played a major factor in the colonization of the New World as the primary reason for the founding of New England was the search for religious freedom. The religious freedoms sought by the colonists in the New World included freedom from the Anglican Church of England, freedom to worship God in a Puritanical manner, and the freedom of each church to separately govern itself and its membership. Freedom from the Anglican Church was a highly motivating factor in the colonization of the New World because the majority of the founders of the New World were in strong disagreement with religious practices of the Anglican Church, also referred to as the Church of England. One major complaint of the New World founders
…show more content…

The Puritan form of religion that motivated the foundation of the New World was also referred to as Non-Separatism because there was an even more extreme group of New World founders referred to as the Separatists who completely opposed anything to do with the Anglican Church, period. The Puritans or Non-Separatists held on to a very basic, bare-bones structure derived from the Anglican Church, but took out any views or church laws that were once enforced by the hierarchy structure of the church in England and instead replaced these formulaic and rigid practices with new rigid practices of their own devise. Some of the Puritan practices of religion and changes from the Church of England included an all-encompassing way of life in the New World colonies that tended to force an entirely Puritanical religious lifestyle by creating the freedom for each church to decide who earned “sainthood” by their everyday practices and way of life. If the Puritan colony and church did not approve of a person’s everyday practices and did not deem a person to have the status of “sainthood” then they could deny the person membership to the church and also ostracize them from the colony as a whole, therefore forcing anyone who disagreed with the new, rigid Puritanical way of life to …show more content…

All one had to do to find religious freedom in the New World was to choose a colony with a religious mindset that resembled one’s own mindset, and if that wasn’t an available option then the option to up and move to a new area was always on the table. This freedom to simply up and move to create a new colony with a new religious standard was a major factor in the colonization of the New World. Each group of pilgrims that arrived in the New World took this freedom for what it was worth and spread up and down the New England coast in a wildfire fashion of colonization that allowed the New World to flourish. Once word spread back to Europe that so many freedoms, especially in the religious realm, were offered in the New World then more pilgrims chose to take the treacherous journey to the New World in hopes of a new way of life. Colonies flourished and continued to spread throughout the New World, and the rest is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Religion in the colonies was freer and more persecution free than ever. While religious persecution still existed, it was much milder and there were many places one could go to escape persecution. The Church of England had no effective form of power in the colonies, so they could not enforce the church upon the colonists in the area. Meanwhile, areas such as Rhode Island had extremely tolerant…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    When the pilgrims came to New England they set out for their own religious freedom, even though they didn’t always believe other religions had the right to do so as well. In England the puritans, both separatists and non-separatists, were harshly treated by the theocratic government (government controlled by religious aspects). The puritans were locked up or even killed for disobeying the church and government. In the 1620s, puritans in England heard about the Plymouth colony of separatists and wanted something similar. The Massachusetts Bay Company was an organized group of adventurers and puritans that were set for going to New England greatly for economic interests. The company received a charter from the king that allowed them to leave England to set up a colony in the new world. At the time the king didn’t know they were puritans or he may have not allowed the charter to be issued. The puritans in the company sought this venture to be a chance to create a perfect Christian society of their own. In 1630, 1,000 people (including families) sailed over headed by John Winthrop, an influential leader of the expedition. Winthrop was later to be an elected leader year after year in the colony. In the port of Boston was where the central colony started. The colony was greatly influenced by…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Tina Van History 146 October 12, 2014 Week 3: Graphic Organizer Northern 1. Massachusetts: Divided into the Plymouth colony & the Massachusetts Bay colony.  Plymouth: Founded by William Bradford & populated by the Pilgrims who were separatists from Anglican Church.  Massachusetts Bay: Founded by John Winthrop & strictly populated by Puritans who wanted to “purify” the Anglican Church.…

    • 400 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "The New England Colonies" , was directed by someone, is about history of The New England Colonies. The founders of the New England colonies was a completely different mission from the Jamestown settlers. Despite the economic prosperity was another goal settlers of New England, their true purpose was spiritual. Fed up with the ceremonial Church of England, the Pilgrims and the Puritans sought to recreate the society in the manner they think God really intended it to be developed. Religious hostility reached a peak in England in the 1500s. When Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church of Rome, the spiritual life in England was turned over. New Church under the leadership of King has been approved by Parliament, but not all people in England…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Motivations for each group of immigrants coming to the New World created a huge distinction of differences that would arouse in these two colonies. Doc. A shows how the New England colony was created by the immigration of Puritans. They came with the mindset that they could create their own community with the unity upon one goal. That goal was the belief that they could choose whatever religion they wanted to believe in. The religion that they worshipped was Christianity which they would be persecuted if they worshipped it in England. Doc. D shows that the immigrants who came to the Chesapeake colony for different religious beliefs, a new political structure interest in finding gold, and family life. Single men populated the area and a social structure was created. A credit system was created to purchase land. And a motive to find gold and trading partners to create a profit for the Virginia Company.…

    • 692 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    All of the Middle Colonies came to the new world for religious freedom. The separatists came to the new world to get away from the English Church. They wanted to be able to worship however they wanted to without being told what to do by the King, who is also the head of the Church. They believed God is ruler of the Church. This is called theocracy; it is the belief that God is the head of state and not the King. The New England colonies came to the new world for economic development. Such as trading and making relations with the natives and claiming land for England.…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    England was without a doubt the “owner” of the new world in the 17th century. It established colonies on the entire eastern coast and controlled that region with the exception of Florida. In order to have these colonies and region prosper, Great Britain enforced the policy of salutary neglect which limited English control on the colonies and giving them more freedom to do as they see fit. Salutary neglect positively influenced the development of legislative assemblies, commerce, and religion in America before the year 1750. With the lack of British control over the American colonies, the colonists were essentially left to fend for themselves and this sense of independence led the pilgrims to form their own “rules and regulations” which was imperative if the Americans were to ever succeed. Due to the enforcement of this policy, America was able to establish itself as a separate and free country.…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both the Pilgrims and the Puritans trust in God’s providence, meaning that what God wants to happen will indeed happen, but, as the two groups made opposing decisions, they executed their new lifestyles much differently. The Puritan’s journey to “purify” the Church of England entailed the immigration of the group from England to America but never separating in faith from the church. Their goal is easily comparable to that of the Scrooby Separatists, as they both sought a land of religious opportunity and freedom, however, the Puritans also strived to set a strong religious example for those who remained in England and were still committed to the church. Puritans never enabled the thoughts of others to persuade them, and living in present day America, these die-hard believers would not allow themselves to fall short of their well-known principles. Their lives would not differ much in the sense of religious practice, as the Puritans depend on the gifts from God in everyday life.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Puritans were passionate reformers seeking to bring the Church of England to a state of purity in comparison with Christianity at the time of Christ and decided to form their own religious colonies in America. They considered religion to be a complex and highly intellectual affair. Thus, leaders were highly trained scholars with authoritarian positions that developed a “built-in hierarchism” (http://xroads.virginia.edu/%7eCAP/PURITAN/purhist.html#pil, 3). Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson believed and preached “Individualisme”…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Religion played a very important role in the establishment of the England colonies. Communities were developed as business related ventures, allowances for the monarch, a disciplinary community, and also considerably for religious reasons. The most critical role in certain communities was played by religion. The communities that religion was extremely authoritative against were Massachusetts and Plymouth Bay, also Rhode Island and Maryland.…

    • 220 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    At first, the colonists did not like the religion in England. At the time, it was illegal for them…

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The difference of motives of people moving was crucial to the difference of people. The New Englanders, who moved for religious reasons, came here for a very specific purpose. These people were Non-Separatists Puritans, who, instead of rebelling and leaving the Anglican church, decided to help reform it. To achieve this, they set up settlements in North America, with the aim to reform the church by setting an example of how a society should be run. John Winthrop of Plymouth even wrote a text called A Model of Christian Charity…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Economic and social motives for this settlement include the town structure, their focus on education and religious reasons, and their communal norms and beliefs that they hoped to put in place. Religion was an important factor in their decision to settle in these colonies. The pilgrims, known as the Separatists due to their desire to remove themselves and separate from the Anglican church, as well as the Puritans, believed that the new world is the only place they would be able to practice their individual beliefs and gain religious freedom. They wanted to form beliefs and worship as a community, which their location allowed to be possible.…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During Colonization there were troubles with Native Americans (disease, Indian Wars, Massachusetts Bay), John Winthrop and the city on a hill, Puritans, Role of religion in society, the American Dream (social mobility, land, and a fresh start.) During the Revolution the main people were Benjamin Franklin, John Locke, and Phillis Wheatley. Some ideas during this time were the Enlightenment which was the belief of science and guides to life. Finally for Popular Sovereignty it was for the Kansas/Nebraska Act during 1854, during the bleeding Kansas John Brown starts his own part inside of this. Also Pro-slavery and abolitionists using violence to get what they want and to basically force them to do anything they want.…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This allowed for more of a tolerance of different religions. The Chesapeake colonies had a melting pot of different religions. They allowed Jews to practice freely in their colonies. The Jewish people from Brazil wrote to the Dutch West India to allow them settle in North America they stated, “... the Jewish nation be permitted… to travel, live and traffic there, and with them enjoy liberty on condition of contributing to others,¨(VOF, 20). On the other hand, the New England colonies were not as tolerable as the Chesapeake colonies. The Puritans were a group of people in England to adopt Calvinist teachings when they became unhappy with how the Church of England was too similar to the Catholic religion. They left England for the Jamestown colony, but were blown off course and settled in present-day Massachusetts. There, they established a Puritan colony. Religion played a large role in the social order of the New England colonies. Due to the number of families that emigrated, New England possessed a very patriarchal society. In New England, women were oppressed and not seen as equals due to the Puritan ideals implemented in their society. The…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics