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
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
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