Spanish Settlements and English Colonies

The Spanish and English were involved in the New World both religiously and economically; however, their approaches were quite different.

The Spaniards were Catholic. They wanted to gain numbers to support Catholicism and show that it is the true religion. Because of this, they forced Catholicism onto the Indians. They set up convents and brought missionaries to help convert the Indians to Catholicism.

The Spanish were mostly interested in taking gold from their settlements. Their settlements only lasted temporarily because they did not have anything else to do economically after they ran out of gold. They did try to go into agriculture and sheep raising, but those never worked out. In the end, they were never prosperous. The Spanish themselves never worked; they made the Indians do all their labor.

The English were mostly Puritans and pilgrims. The pilgrims wanted to separate from Protestantism, so they came over to the New World. The Puritans wanted to change ideas within the Anglican Church because they felt it was too similar to Catholicism. The Puritans came to the New World and had a huge influence. Unlike the Spanish, the English never forced their religious beliefs onto the Indians.

Unlike the Spanish, the English had long-term goals. At first, they made a lot of money off of tobacco. After there was no more tobacco, they got into farming and fishing. Their colonies were mostly trading so they had lumber yards to create big ships for trading. Because of the diversity in the economy, the English were prosperous unlike the Spanish and their colonies lasted. The English worked hard and never forced Indian labor.