About Am. history......HELP?

Question

1. What role did religion play in early European efforts at overseas colonization? Did religious factors always encourage colonization, or did they occasionally interfere with European expansion?

2.In what ways were trade networks important in linking different groups of people in the old world and the new world?

p.s. this is my Am history summer reading questions, and I'm really confused about these two, I read the book, but I still don't really get it......please help me!! tks~ =]

Answer 1

I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability

1) Many countries, particularly the Spanish, wanted to convert the natives (sometimes in not so Christian ways).  Colonies such as Pennsylvania were formed for religious reasons; it was originally founded by Quakers who wanted to practice religious freedom.  I'm not sure if religion interfered with expansion, but if the questions asking it, then it probably did.

2) Unfortunately, the slave trade was a big business.  I believe ships formed a triangle between Africa, the Americas, and England... I really don't understand the question.

I hope I've helped at least a little bit!  Good luck!

Answer 2

Well, in some ways religion played a role in most of the efforts to colonize the new and old worlds, remember the Portugese were trying to establish themselves in Japan, and the Spanish in the Philippines.

In Spanish colonies, particularly in the Americas, they restricted emigration to good Catholics. In the English colonies, separatists settled the New England colonies. In some ways, it's almost as though the Spanish were sending the people they thought they could trust, the English were sending the ones they didn't want.  Southern colonies were settled by crown charter.

The French were also Catholic, and the missionaries were among the first to explore places like Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. There was some conflict. The traders thought it just fine to supply the natives with rum, while the priests objected. The priests were also subject to crown displeasure. The Society of Jesus was eventually banished from France, due to their absorbing too much power and wealth. In South America, at least according to LaSalle, the Jesuits had been stealing the Indians blind. LaSalle wasn't fond of Jesuits, as you may surmise.

You may have seen Shogun and gotten some idea about the disaster the Portugese missionaries managed to make of their mission to Cipango, as Polo had called it in his work. The whole period of westerners being allowed to be in Japan, and not in prison, was very brief until the 19th century when  Perry pushed his way in.

Trade networks supply goods, and they also provide a connection between people. If people are selling to one another, and dealings are fair and honest, there is a greater inclination to maintain the peace. If someone gets greedy, it may also lead to war.

The nature, in the New World at least, of tribal life is that many of the people are related to one another. In order to avoid incest, which is a prohibition that seems to have traveled to all continents, some groups would look to their neighbors for brides and grooms for their children. There again, a marriage can provide a good union for trade as well as for peace.

There is also an intermingling of language, traditions, even games and religions.  In the Americas, Maize began in MesoAmerica, but within a few hundred years, it was being grown in Indiana.

The Ohio History Central website is great.