How Did Religion Affect America

Many factors affected the people who lived in Europe and America, as well as their lifestyle. Religion put certain people in power and created conflict. These conflicts caused economic problems, so new systems were developed. The search for the northwest passage helped the spread of culture and helped explorers discover new land. These factors changed the way Europeans lived and also affected their colonies in America.
Religion greatly affected people in power, as well as the people in general. The Catholic versus Protestant conflict lead to many changes of what religion was in power. For instance, Henry, a Catholic, wanted to divorce his wife. Catholic law did not permit divorce so Henry asked the Pope to annul his marriage. The pope refused and Henry was no longer a part of the Catholic Church because he decided to break from it. In doing so, he set up a Protestant church called the Church of England. Another example is when Elizabeth I took the throne. She was a Protestant who had replaced the former queen, who was Catholic. This ¨renewed the rivalry with Roman Catholic Spain¨ (page 51). King Phillip assembled a fleet of warships in hopes of forcing Elizabeth from the throne. English ships sank Phillips fleet called the Spanish Armada. England and France could now found colonies in America because the defeat of the Armada changed
Explorers found new land which spread their culture. They also found new sea routes. Page 51 states, “Verranzo explored the Atlantic coastal region from North Carolina to Newfoundland...he discovered the mouth of the Hudson River and New York Bay…[Cartier] discovered the St. Lawrence River and explored it as far as present-day Montreal.” Explorers found many resources from other cultures and land they found. When explorers reported back to their homeland about the places they found, Europeans began to look at the Newfoundland as a profitable place instead of an