Europeans Coming To America Research Paper

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Pages: 9

There are a variety of different reasons why Europeans choose to leave their old lives behind and attempt to make a new one on a faraway continent. Every colonist had a different story and different specific reasons for what they wanted to gain in America. Ignoring the finer details of the colonist’s hopes and aspirations, a greater trend emerges. European colonists hoped to gain a better life from their time in America, mainly from the religious and economic benefits of coming to the New World. Their dreams of a better life faced many challenges in America, such as conflict with Indians and labor shortages. Europeans had several different ways to solve these problems, which included utilizing trade, diplomacy, war, slavery, and indentured …show more content…
Many Europeans had an explicitly religious purpose for coming to America, but others may have been more interested in new economic opportunities or even glory for themselves. The Puritans left England because of their religious beliefs, as they wanted to escape the sin-ridden England. Early Puritans thought England was doomed by God, as Reverend Thomas Hooker argued that “As sure as God is God, God is going from England” (Hooker, 91). The Puritans also believed that it was unsafe in England and that they had to leave to escape God’s wrath; as also told by Hooker, “What if I should tell you what God told me yesterday that he would destroy England and lay it waste” (Hooker, 91). Puritans left England to give themselves and their future children a better life away from the “sinful, corrupt” England. While the Puritans wanted to leave the religious situation in their home country, the Spanish wanted to spread their home country's religion in the new world. The Spanish conquistadors had many purposes for expanding their control of America, but one major reason was to convert Native Americans to