New Colonies and New Religions

Somebody’s Jealous England, France, and the Netherlands envied the Spanish colonies. They wanted American colonies of their own. Also, European nations were still looking for a shorter route to India. Frenchmen like Jacques Cartier and Englishmen like Henry Hudson tried to find a Northwest Passage to India. These men were unsuccessful at finding the path they were searching for, but they did come away with some great maps of North America.

Who Ordered the Protestant Reformation Platter? A very big change in Christianity happened around this time period. During this time period, the Catholic Church was the only Christian Church. There were no Baptists or Methodists or Church of Christ. A man named Martin Luther changed all that. Luther thought the Catholic Church had lost sight of the true meaning of Christianity. Since Martin Luther was protesting so much, he and his followers group became known as the Protestants. This Protestant Reformation, as it was called, is where we got all other Christian churches.

Christianity makes like a banana and SPLITS!! Spain and France stayed mostly Catholic while England and the Netherlands were mostly Protestant. This made tensions in Europe even higher.

Here Come The French (ha, ha, ha) The French made their way over to North America and started New France up where Canada is today. The French found little gold or silver, so they made their money mostly from beaver pelts (beaver skins). The French were much nicer to the Natives, and the Natives even taught the French survival skills and how to trap beaver.

Here come the Dutch! Wait, who are the Dutch? The Dutch weren’t going to be left out of the money being made in North America. They started a very profitable colony called New Netherland. New Netherland is now New York. The Dutch and the French became rivals in the fur trade. Each one tried to make alliances with the Native Americans. This caused fighting between the French and the Dutch for many years. Here’s an interesting fact! The Dutch brought Christmas to the Americas.

I’ve got Bad News and Worse News All these new Europeans caused more bad things to happen to the Native Americans. More Natives were pushed off their land, and more natives were killed by European diseases. Natives even became addicted to the alcohol that Europeans traded them. One day we’ll get back at you by opening casinos!