English Exploration and Colonization of America

English Exploration and Colonization of America.

Economic opportunity and religious freedom are two main reasons the English settled in North America. The search for the Northwest Passage was also important to the English exploration and colonization of America.

One reason the English settled here was because they saw how Spain was getting rich from the Americas. They believed they could find riches in northern America. Wealthy Englishmen knew the land was a good investment, so they sponsored companies that settled here looking for gold or a passage through North America to the Orient so they wouldn't have to sail so far to get the riches there. The colonist also settled in the Americas because of all of the good farmland and cash crops like tobacco. Indentured servants came to the Americas because landowners paid them for doing the work for them. If they worked on a landowner's farm for five to seven years, they could start their own farms. Anybody paying their own way to Jamestown received 50 acres of farmland and 50 acres for anyone who came with them. English farmers who had been pushed off their land settled in America because the cheap land gave them the chance to improve their lives.

The Protestant Reformation created many different religious sects in Europe. In England, people who didn't belong to the Church of England were severely persecuted. Puritans, Quakers, Baptists, and others settled in America so they would have religious freedom. Each church established a town for themselves.