The Establishment of the English colonies in America

The English colonies in America were established for a variety of reasons including economic and religious factors. Other reasons for colonization include the desire to expand the British Empire, establishing order, protecting colonies and to rehabilitate debtors.

Religious factors that contributed to the establishment of the English colonies occurred in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

In England, due to Henry VIII 's action upon breaking his ties with the Roman Catholic Church and making himself head of the Church of England, it stimulated religious reformers into carry out purification of English Christianity. These religious reformers, known as Puritans wanted to reform the Church of England from within. Therefore, in 1629, Puritans secured a royal charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They proposed to establish a settlement in the Massachusetts area, where Boston would become the core of Puritan society. The Puritans didn't want to separate from the Church of England, but rather separate from its impurities.

English: The World in 1897. "The British Possessio...

English: Massachusetts_Bay_Colony_1930_Issue-2c.jp...

English: Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

In Rhode Island, people such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson challenged the Church of England as well as Puritan beliefs. Anne Hutchinson argues that people had the ability to talk to God, and that it was unnecessary to go to Church as well as reading the Bible. Roger Williams, also with radical ideas, questions whether the government had the right to regulate religious behavior. Also, he pursued people to make a clean break from the Church of England. In Rhode Island, Williams established a Baptist church, with freedom of religion. He encouraged no taxes to support a state church as well as no oaths regarding religious beliefs. Rhode Island was the shelter for banished religious rebels and the religious tolerance made Rhode Island more liberal than any other of the English settlements.

In Connecticut, Reverend Thomas Hooker establishes Hartford,