Why Did European People Colonize America

Have you ever wondered what made people colonize America? Think of this, if there was no reason for the European nations to sail to America, where would we be now? And a better question, who would we be? Back in 15th century, thirteen European nations sailed across the ocean to colonize the “New World”. Each colony came for one or all of these three reasons, God, Glory, and Gold. Some of the colonies came to the “New World” for God, or in other words religion. Some of them came to get away from persecution because the Puritans in their nation didn’t like their religion and wanted to convert them. The Puritan colony came to the “New World” so they could convert the other religions to theirs since they couldn’t tolerate other religions
at all. The remaining colonies didn’t come over to the “New World” for religion, but they still believed in their own religions. Some colonies, unlike the Puritans, had large amounts of all types of religions because the middle colonies were a lot more tolerant than the others. The southern Colonies also didn’t come for the religion, and when they were colonized they weren’t required to go to church every Sunday because all the plantations were so far apart. Plus, not all the colonies came to the “New World” for religion. The second reason the European nations colonized the “New World” was that they all wanted glory.
All of the European nations were competing to be glorious, they all wanted to be the ones who created the first successful town/colony in the “New World”. They all wanted to be the first ones to have made the first successful colony only after the Spaniards were recognized for being the first to find the “New World” with Columbus. But, soon they all discovered some complications in the “New World”. The regions that they picked to colonize were crucial to their success; the northern colonies were somewhat fortunate because their land was cold, which slowed the spread of disease, which made it so their people didn’t die off. But, the downside to the cold in the north was that they had bad soil, it was too frozen for actual plant or grow anything. The most fortunate of the colonies were the middle colonies; the middle colonies had great coastal harbors so they could ship their trades a lot easier and their climate and land were ideal for agriculture. So, the middle colonies were called the “breadbasket” because since their land and climate was great for agriculture they grew barley, wheat, oats, and rye. And, the southern colonies also had their pluses, they had the perfect soil for farming and their growing season lasted longer than any other region. The only downside for the southern colonies was that in the hot summers came malaria and yellow
fever. Lastly, but not least, the colonies came to colonize the “New World” for gold.
Most of the European nations came to the “New World” because they were sick of the Muslim middlemen they had to go through to trade with the East because the Muslim middlemen collected/charged taxes as the trade goods passed between different people. And there was also the problem of the robbers waiting for the shipment of trade to come so they could ambush them and take the goods to sell themselves. Most of them left, thinking they would find lots of gold in the “New World”, but when they colonized some of the colonies died trying to dig for gold when they should’ve just worried about survival. The Northern colonies were successful because they had access to fishing cod, whaling, trapping, and ship building. Middle colonies were great because, as mentioned earlier, they were the “breadbasket” and everyone needed what they were providing. And the southern colonies found their “gold” in growing tobacco, corn, cotton, fruit, livestock, and
vegetables. In the end, there were many, many reasons why the European nations colonized the “New World”. This is very important to know or learn because we all came from somewhere and this is our history that we share. Plus, it is always interesting to learn what started everyone to start sailing and colonizing the “New World” which was God, Glory, and Gold.