Colonization and its Religious Justifications: A Historical Perspective

Textbooks and literature in general are filled with exploration of New Worlds and territories, it is a natural human desire to want to know more about the unknown. When Columbus then discovered a New World, fraught with possibilities in 1492, it opened up a whole new adventure for Europe. (Goldfield, the American Journey, 17). Many countries over the next several hundred years took a stab at colonizing the New World, and creating their own versions of their countries in it.

The first real country to colonize the Americas, aside from the Norse colony Vinland that traded with the Native Americans (Goldfield, 15), were the Spanish. The Spaniards primary goal in colonization of this world was the idea of “Reconquista”, or the conversion of heathens, namely the natives, to Christianity. They believed they had “religious justification for conquest” (Goldfield,

18) and sent in their conquistadors to persuade the peoples that they needed to find God. This is a common theme for colonization for most cultures, everyone tries to convert the unconverted to the “correct religion”, and however, the Spanish appeared to be the most honest about it, albeit brutal, since they basically killed anyone who disagreed that their benevolent God was better.
Next, came the British, or English, who simply wanted to “increase England’s trade” (Goldfield, 25) and also have a place to send the riff-raff, namely the unemployed, of society. They went so far as to offer land to whomever would make the perilous journey to the Americas. This was a good idea in theory, get the trouble-makers out of England so there isn’t as much conflict in the mother-land. However, in the long run, those trouble makers have children, and those children have children, and so forth, generations learning from the past generations what it was that made England such a bad place to live and why their ancestors where sent away to begin with. Thus, you have the makings for a large grouping of unhappy colonists who will rebel against the crown who discarded them as nothing to begin with.
The French were a bit simpler in their desires to colonize the Americas.

They wanted primarily to bring in more furs, namely beaver pelt (Goldfield, 31). This had become a popular commodity and the French jumped on the opportunity to take advantage of this demand. They were also more peaceful in many ways, befriending the Natives and working alongside them instead of overtaking them like the Spanish did (Goldfield, 32). That may have also been due to the fact that the Indians outnumbered the French colonists (Goldfield, 61), however, it still stands to show a peaceful co-existence is much more efficient than a bloody and violent one.

Regardless of the motives each country had, in the long run, these colonies melded together to create one perfect nation, where we see many different aspects of the values those countries had. There is still a big desire to convert non-believers, regardless of religion. People still trade with one another, and are eager to learn about other cultures. This blending of the different cultures is what makes America so unique in that she is not of one country, but of them

all.