1. Coming to the New World

2. Motivation for Exploration- 1400s
To find a Sea Route to Asia,
by shortest distance – Northwest Passage across the Atlantic
Trade: spices and silk
To Spread Christianity

3. Reasons to Establish Colonies Overseas
To add to the Wealth and Power of the home country
To gain Raw Materials
1500s – gold and silver (Spain)
1600s – fur pelts (French)
To sell their own manufactured goods, such as cloth, lace, pots, dished, books,
Thought their home country was overpopulated

4. Push Factors
Economics: hunger, poverty, homelessness, lack of opportunity
Many people were willing to risk it all for a fresh start in a new place
Religious Intolerance in home country
If a person did not conform to teachings of official state church, they were often persecuted
English Separatists traveled to Netherlands because of persecution in England; later traveled to New World as Pilgrims

5. Pull Factors Belief that America was a land of abundance
Open land, food, hunting…
Religious Freedom
Pilgrims travel to America in hopes of religious freedom
The Pilgrims were followed by other non-conformists: Puritans, Quakers, Catholics, Jews, Baptists, and others

6. Force
Africans kidnapped and forced to come to the New World (in chains)
Portuguese 1st to enslave the Africans (1444)
1500s – Spanish colonists importing large numbers of Africans to work on sugar plantations in the West Indies
1619 – a few Africans brought to English Colony of Virginia and sold as servants
Late 1600s – thousands of captive Africans brought into colonies each year and sold into slavery