Social Hierarchies In Europe

Therefore, younger sons were less likely to inherit any wealth at all; the idea of claiming land in the New World, extracting precious metals from the colonies was an attractive belief. It was the only way that they would make a respectable name for themselves back in Europe. Another social cause was religious reasons; The Protestant Reformation was a religious reform movement throughout Europe, that, when it ended, people started to have different religious ideas; the schism between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Church caused that. Therefore, religious minorities increased throughout Europe, and in order to have religious freedom, Europeans moved in the thousands to the New World. Because of this, the Protestant Reformation encouraged exploration and colonization of the New World. On the other hand, the Counter-Reformation (in which the Catholic Church made reforms to encourage Protestants to return back to their faith) also encouraged exploration and colonization of the New World, because of its missionary efforts, such as the Society of Jesus. The Protestant Reformation broke the previous unity of European Christianity, and several Christian sects developed; the Church of England wished to eradicate a large number of these sects, however. From 1630 to 1642, approximately

Therefore, with this stability, Spain could look forward to expand its empire; the Spanish did so with their exploration and colonization of the New World. The desire of new worlds to conquer was a common theme throughout European countries which led to the colonization and exploration of the New World. Inter-country rivalries throughout Europe, mainly between Spain, France, and England, prompted for there to be a “battle” for the colonies, and whatever precious metals and labour sources that one could extract from the New World. Therefore, most early voyages were sponsored by the state.The first phase was sponsored by Spain, Christopher Columbus, and was soon followed by England, Portugal, and France. On the other hand, not only was government-driven a political motive, but also political freedom from oppressive and/or unstable governments. Many were seeking freedom from religious persecution (for example, the Puritans), while others simply wished to have their own political