Page 38 - All About History - Issue 08-14

What if...

The Pilgrims

hadn’t gone to

America?

THE NEW WORLD, 1620-1630

Written by Matthew Bennett

What if the British pilgrims and puritans had not have had the place to themselves without these English
EVELYN TIDMAN travelled to America? settlements, but that would not have happened. At the time,
Evelyn has If they had not travelled to America it is very likely that the the nations of Europe were intent on carving up the New
always been religious and political life of the country would be entirely World to their best advantage. The Portuguese had already
interested in
history and different. Scholars have suggested that the Puritan base of got a foothold in South America in Brazil. The Spanish were
while working in Eastern America is responsible for the laws and attitudes of hot on their heels also in South America and the Caribbean.
London realised
that history novels didn’t that area, and beyond, even influencing government. It has The Dutch had their efforts in Suriname in South America
have to be dry and academic. been said that the reason why America guarantees freedom and had already set their eyes on what is now New York, and
She has researched and of worship is because of the attitude of the first immigrants. the French were busy trying to gain Canada and islands in
written three history novels:
Gentleman of Fortune, about The Pilgrims, especially, had fought for their right to worship the Caribbean. Along with all this colonising, the British were
the eighteenth century pirate as their consciences dictated, and they tried to guarantee the leaders. At the time of the Pilgrims, they had already
Bartholomew Roberts, One that right to others, even if they disagreed doctrinally with established the Virginia Company for the express purpose of
Small Candle about the
Pilgrim Fathers and a novel their views. Obviously, without that influence, subsequent colonisation, and the reason the Pilgrims got a patent to go to
about the English Civil War. developments in religious America could not have happened, America was because the British government were keen to get
The books are available in
print and digitally. and I’m thinking of the Baptists, Mennonites, Amish, Christian a foothold there before everyone else did! Indeed, the Pilgrims
Scientists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and many others. themselves, were always on the alert in case of Spanish or
French attack. As to the question on who would have been
Why did the Pilgrims and Puritans travel to America? dominant, the truth is that it is difficult to tell, because they
One of the reasons for the Pilgrims moving to America was would have been fighting it out among themselves. The
that their children were speaking Dutch better than they educated guess is probably the Spanish, because they actually
spoke English, and that they were becoming Dutch in all their colonised most of the Americas at the time.
ways. What they really wanted to do was to move the whole
congregation [about 400 people] from Leiden [in Holland] to How would the native Americans have been affected if
America, and stay a separate entity, but of course they could the English didn’t settle in the east coast?
not do that all in one go. Other circumstances meant that If the Spanish had indeed been the dominant group,
they had to take strangers with them, people not of their they would have brought the Inquisition, much like the
persuasion, so already that ideal was compromised. One of conquistadores in South America did to the peoples in what
the reasons the Separatists were so named was because they is now Mexico. The Spanish Inquisition would have forced
wanted to be separate from the Puritans. The Puritans wanted the native Americans to accept the Catholic faith by the use
to ‘purify’ the church of England while the Separatists gave it of torture and murder. And like the Incas and Mayans, it is
up as a bad job! So Puritans and Separatists did not see eye doubtful if many would have survived. One of the arguments
to eye religiously, although later with the establishment of the the Pilgrims had for not going to Virginia was that the Spanish
Massachusetts Bay colony they merged. were nearby and they were afraid of the Inquisition. And
another reason for leaving Leiden was the threat of Spanish
Without these English settlements what other nation invasion again bringing the Inquisition. It was a real fear.
might have become the dominant force in America? The Pilgrims, whose religious ideas were against war, had a
It would be nice to think that the Native Americans would peace contract with the local Indians, which lasted more than
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