Religion played an important role in the colonization of the Americas. The Spanish and Portuguese hoped to spread Catholicism in their colonies. The Spanish worked deliberately to eradicate native beliefs, destroying the Aztec codices and often building their cathedrals on sites once sacred to the indigenous people. Priests accompanied the conquistadors. Some like Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican, criticized the brutal treatment of indigenous people.

However, in New Spain the Church had a close relationship to the government. The Church brought the Inquisition with it, conducting thousands of trials for heresy; nevertheless, some traditional beliefs survived. These were often blended with Christianity, a practise called syncretism.

Franciscan friars founded missions throughout Mexico, including those founded by Junípero Serra in what is today California, starting with the mission at San Diego founded in 1769. Similarly, the Jesuit order was active in establishing missions. Desiring autonomy, the Jesuits often located missions far on the frontiers; this displeased José de Gálvez, a ‘visitor general’ sent to inspect the colony of New Spain; the Jesuits were then banished.

The missions were built by the local indigenous people, who were converted, baptized, and forced to work for the missions. As in other places colonized by the Spanish, diseases spread rapidly. Native Americans sometimes rebelled; in New Mexico there was an uprising by the Pueblo Indians called Popé’s Rebellion (1680-1692); the Indians hoped to return to the old customs and end the practise of Christian traditions. In 1775, similarly, the mission at San Diego was burned in an indigenous uprising.

In New France, the first religious leaders to arrive were a group of Franciscans called Recollects. Shortly thereafter, the Jesuits reached New France; they came to be known by the indigenous people as “Black Robes”. They founded schools and travelled among the native peoples, documenting the customs of the people they encountered, learning their languages, and trying to make converts. However, conversion was difficult among the Huron people, and some Jesuit missionaries were martyred. The Jesuits also acquired large landholdings in Canada.

In the British colonies, religion was one of several reasons for settlement. Both the Pilgrims and the Puritans migrated to Massachusetts (founding the Plymouth Colony in 1620 and the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630). The colonists wanted the freedom to practise their versions of Protestantism without interference. Strict religious rules controlled life in Boston, a Puritan stronghold.

Not all colonists arriving in the Americas felt the same; Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, believed that the government should not interfere in people’s religious beliefs and that the Native Americans should be compensated for their land. In Rhode Island, there was separation of church and state. Similarly, Pennsylvania was founded by the Quaker William Penn.

In Pennsylvania, religious freedom was written into the colony’s charter. In Virgina, a royal colony, the Anglican faith (the Church of England) became the colony’s religion in 1619. The colony of Maryland was founded in 1634. Its founders were Catholic, as were many of its settlers, but it was founded on principles of religious freedom.

In the 1720s, a religious movement called the Great Awakening swept through the colonies in response to the spread of Enlightenment ideals. Distressed by what they perceived as the diminution of the intensity and purity of the Christian faith, Jonathan Edwards, a leader of the Great Awakening preached “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” spreading the message that their congregations were sinful and they could only earn God’s forgiveness and salvation by asking for his grace and by faith. The Great Awakening focused on intense emotions and a personal relationship with God. This movement led to the spread of Methodist and Baptist congregations and the establishment of colleges such as Princeton and Brown.