Question

What motivated England to colonize the New World? How similar to or different from Spain’s motives, dis-cussed in Chapter 1, were those of England?

Answer 1

Answer:

In the first place, to create its ultramarine Empire just like Spain and Portugal. And second, because England was late on this process because of the political problems and the constant wars which were involved. But the colonization process of what later became known as the Thirteen Colonies was different from Spain or Portugal because the puritans were going there to settle, and these colonies were created under moral, philosophical and religious rules, which motivated different behaviors related to trade and market.

Explanation:

The religious persecution of Puritans, the English Calvinists, especially after the creation of Anglicanism with Henry VIII, led them to move to America. The objective was to create living spaces where they could freely exercise their religious precepts. In addition to the political and religious disputes, which in different periods took Anglicans and Puritans to America, there was also the expulsion of a large part of the peasant population from the fields, mainly with the Fences. This process of land encircling by large landowners generated an urban population swelling, contributing for part of the population to emigrate to North America. All these aspects lead to creating colonies strictly based on the settlement, different from the Iberian colonization that was based on exploration.