Wanderlust World Wanderlust World The Reformation shattered Western Christendom, turning theological disputes into geopolitical competition that propelled European powers across the Atlantic.
Pope Alexander VI divided the non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal. The meridian (370 leagues west of Cape Verde) sent Spain west (Americas) and Portugal east (Africa, Asia, Brazil). Both raced to claim souls and gold for Catholicism—spawning the patronato real (royal patronage of missions).
England (Anglican), Netherlands (Calvinist), France (Huguenot minority) rejected papal monopoly. They framed colonization as:
France (officially Catholic) colonized Canada (New France) and Louisiana with Jesuit missions. England (Protestant) settled the Atlantic seaboard. Wars in Europe (Queen Anne's War, Seven Years' War) mirrored colonial clashes—religion legitimized territorial ambition.
The Dutch Republic (Calvinist) sought trade, not conversion. But the Dutch West India Company founded New Netherland (New Amsterdam) and supported Protestant rebels in Brazil. Henry Hudson's 1609 voyage (for Dutch) opened the Hudson Valley.
Pilgrims (Separatists) → Plymouth (1620). Puritans (Non-Separating) → Massachusetts Bay (1630). Their covenant theology framed New England as a "City upon a Hill"—a godly commonwealth inspiring later American exceptionalism.
Religious rivalry produced a patchwork of colonies with distinct confessional characters: Spanish Catholic missions, French Jesuit outposts, English Puritan towns, Dutch Reformed manors, Quaker Pennsylvania, Catholic Maryland. The First Amendment (1791) later enshrined the lesson: no established church, free exercise—a direct response to Europe's religious wars.