Answer: Look at explanation
Explanation: As a teacher stated, the Protestant Reformation led to the stratification of western Christianity. Throughout the Middle Ages, there were numerous conflicts, but the Catholic Church acted as a sort of permanent "referee" and intermediary, since all Christian nations in the West submitted (at least nominally) to the authority of the Church. The Protestant Reformation ended that era. Protestants no longer acknowledged the authority of the Church, and individual Protestant sects did not acknowledge the authority of any other sect. This led, as mentioned elsewhere, to New World settlement as an escape from persecutions by Catholics or other Protestants.
One could also argue that the Protestant Reformation was an important prerequisite to colonization of North America due to the Treaty of Tordesillas. The Treaty of Tordesillas refers to a series of agreements, mediated by the Pope, which essentially divided the right to colonize the world between Spain (in the West) and Portugal (in the East). England was not a party to this agreement, so the English may have run afoul of the Pope if they had remained Catholic and attempted to settle in lands claimed by Spain. However, England converted to Protestantism, which caused them to view their New World conflicts with Spain as conflicts with a hostile and heretical opponent, rather than as a quarrel among family members.
