Discoveries Of American Colonies By Europe And England

In the year 1492 holds the most important date in history, the discovery of America by Columbus. Then the finding of the New World and colonization came along. Christopher Columbus was the one who discovered that there was an indigenous colony was already there. The Europeans then brought along their religion, food, and they also brought diseases which killed ninety percent of the indigenous population. The discovery of America and colonization would “. . . will readily be allowed, have contributed to augment the industry, first, of all the countries which trade directly, such as Spain, Portugal, France, and England. ” The purpose of discovering the New World was to unlift the mercantile system. The purpose was to improve the nation by trade and manufactures. The New Worlds would then open their industries each more great and extensive than the old ones.

21 years after the New World was discovered English colonists settled in Virginia in 1607, to discover that the land was already colonized by fifteen thousand Indians. Members of the thirty tribes, and they would soon turn Virginia into a company for selling tobacco. The company wanted women to come to Virginia, to set them up for organized marriages. But those that emigrated arrived to the colony as indentured servants and were denied the right of marriage until they finished their terms. When finished they would be allowed to start families, but the man they choose to marry also had to be free and upon marriage the men were ordered to “. . . give 120lbs. weight of the best leaf tobacco for each of them, and in case any of them die, that proportion must be advanced to make up upon those that survive…” Early colonies in North saw Maryland as an amazing anomaly and established it in 1632 as a furnish of land and government which would be ruled by Cecilius Calvert who was Catholic. He was confident that the Protestants and Catholics could be in peace together in Europe. Even Though majority of settlers were Protestants, but many office holders were Catholic. While the battle of English Civil War was at hand, Maryland became an absolute anarchy in the 1640s. In 1649 Maryland adopted the Act Concerning Religion it supplied punishment to each person who troubled or molested a Christian for spiritual reasons. William H. Browe said “. . . no person or persons whatever in the Province… professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be any ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced for or in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise therefore within the Province. ” The Act would then be nullified and restated a profuse amount of times in the decades following its establishment, it was also a milestone for religious freedom in America.

New England's early settlers had been broadly speaking Puritans. Protestants believed the Church of England was too Catholicism. The Puritans like others that came to America have been looking for liberty to worship and govern themselves in what they believe to be Christian manner. During a speech in 1645 to Massachusetts’s legislature to provide an explanation for the Puritans beliefs. Governor Winthrop distinct between two types of liberties Natural and Moral. They believed Natural liberty was just to do evil, and Moral liberty was to choose what was good in the eyes of God. Winthrop distinction between those liberties was used many times in religious groups because the people were afraid that the Americans were acting selfishly and immoral and who tried to pressure their beliefs on society.

The last English colony that was discovered was Pennsylvania in 1680, by William Penn. He was a devoted member of the Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. Penn visualized the colony as a location where those facing spiritual persecutions in Europe could come and be free to worship in their own way, also calling it his “Holy Experiment”. The Quakers believed that God's spirit lived in everyone not just the elect, and that the authorities had no right to imposed in any shape of worship. Unlike the English church where government and church were intertwined, Pen separated government and the church. Pen then made an assembly he said was “chosen by the freemen thereof, to consist of four persons out of each county, of most note for virtue, wisdom and ability, which Assembly shall have power to choose a speaker and other officers. ”