The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established as "holy experiments" by the puritans. This group of English Protestants, whose only wish was to "purify" the Church of England, began to receive savage punishment from England for their religious beliefs. In turn, driven by religion, thousands of the religious zealots immigrated to New England to worship God in the way that they saw fit. However, although the Puritans did leave England, running from there own religious persecution, once they had established themselves they self-righteously employed the
A Comparison on the Colonization Techniques of England and Spain and the resulting outcomes Spain and England are known leaders of the Colonization of the New World. Both countries had a very different approach to how they colonized the New World, and both of them reaped different benefits from colonization. Spain had started their colonization process in 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the New World; in 1493 Spain had established their first Colony of Hispaniola. Almost 100 years later, in 1587 England entered the arena with their first settlement on Roanoke Island. This establishment quickly collapsed and the first permanent English colony of Jamestown was established 20 years later in 1607.
The Mayflower Voyage The group that set out from Plymouth, in southwestern England, in September 1620 included 35 members of a radical Puritan faction known as the English Separatist Church. In 1607, after illegally breaking from the Church of England, the Separatists settled in the Netherlands, first in Amsterdam and later in the town of Leiden, where they remained for the next decade under the relatively lenient Dutch laws. Due to economic difficulties, as well as fears that they would lose their English language and heritage, they began to make plans to settle in the New World. Their intended destination was a region near the Hudson River, which at the time was thought to be part of the already established colony of Virginia. In 1620, the would-be settlers joined a London stock company that would finance their trip aboard the Mayflower, a three-masted merchant ship, in 1620.
God is revealed in the Bible. In 1620, the Mayflower arrived to America form England with people who were, in the majority of the cases, puritans that wanted to live in a better way travelling to America. When the ship arrived in Plymouth, the people who were travelling in the ship (not all the people, because people of the crew and several male servants were not allowed to do it) signed a compact which is considered the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. This compact, called “The Mayflower Compact” was
Since England owned these particular areas of the New World, these colonies were very influenced and affected by their mother country. The social faults, political chaos, and economic distress in England during the early colonial years in America played a role in shaping the English colonial experience. The societal issues that were present in England during the 17th century pushed many people to go to the Americas. The overpopulation in England was a major incentive for many to move across the Atlantic. Another reason for migration was the idea of primogeniture, which allowed the eldest son to inherit the wealth; leaving others desperate and in hopes of finding riches overseas.
That type of community could not possibly set up a foundation for a well organized, successful, educated, and fast - progressing society. The Puritans, who settled in New England ten years later, were creators of the stable system, based on their strong religious beliefs and prototype of Capitalist and Individualist society, which the United States based on, today. The Puritans settlement should be the main focus in the history books as the true beginning of the United States of America. One of the main reasons the Pilgrims story is a myth is that they did not come to America for religious freedom. They already had it in Holland, where they escaped from persecution in England.
Oppression by the Anglican Church was overwhelming, not to mention prevalent sinful behavior that plagued the continent – contradicting core puritan beliefs. A leader of the puritan movement, John Winthrop, aimed to create a “city upon a hill” – a community united under the covenant of god. Said community was unobtainable in England, for lack of space, and oppression by the church. A group of separatists led by Winthrop aspired to start a pure society, free of malicious behavior and catholic corruption; a utopian society based purely on god’s word, the bible. Thus, the Massachusetts Bay colony was formed in the New World, the Americas, an ideal place for Winthrop’s “City upon a Hill”.
The common belief today is that our nation, the United States of America, was founded on Christian principles by colonists who fled from religious persecution. Most American’s are under the impression that the Founding Fathers came from the same background as the Puritans or Pilgrims and instilled their Christian beliefs into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. But the early presidents and patriots were generally Deists or Unitarians, who believed in one God, but found fault with organized religion. When you examine the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights, you will see the absence of any reference to Christianity and the Constitution has no reference to God or religion except to ensure it wasn’t part of America’s framework. The United States of America was not founded on Christian principles but on the enlightened principle of human rights, that all people are created equal, and endowed with certain rights, among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
They broke away from the persecution of church leadership and the King to come to America. The immigration of the Pilgrims to New England occurred in stages. The Pilgrims, fleeing religious persecution, broke away from the Church of England because they felt the Church violated biblical principles of true Christians. ‘Opposed to the Episcopal jurisdiction and the rites and discipline of the Church of England, the group had formed as a separatist church by 1606’, Pilgrims (2008) They committed themselves to a life based on the Bible. Evangelical Christianity in the 18th century represented something new but not in the sense of a creation out of nothing.
Only the “elect” or “chosen” were in a good relationship with God. The Puritans believed that belief in Jesus and participation in the sacraments could not alone affect one's salvation; one cannot choose salvation, for that is the privilege of God alone. They also feared that humanistic learning will draw people away from the church. In 1620, in order to practice their beliefs freely, some 100 men, women, and children boarded the Mayflower to establish a settlement in the New World. Amongst these passengers, was the English leader of the settlers William Bradford, whom later became the governor of Plymouth Plantation in 1621at the age of thirty- one.