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The Regions of MODULE

British Colonies: 2.3b
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New England and the

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Middle Colonies

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FOCUS

Historians look at historical change in very broad terms and describe patterns of continuity and
change over time. Just as historians deepen their comparative analyses when they consider
how causation factors into historical developments (see Module 1.7), they also deepen their
understanding of continuity and change over time by incorporating explanations of causation. This
is because uncovering the cause of a particular change or continuity fosters a fuller understanding
of why these changes and continuities occur. Going beyond merely describing continuities and
changes is also one way to examine why some aspects of a topic changed even as factors caused
other aspects to persist unchanged across a timespan.
While reading this module, consider the ways in which religion, politics, economics, and
geography shaped the northern and middle colonies at their inception, what historical realities
changed throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and what remained the same.

The Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation, from its beginning in 1517, transformed the religious Protestant Reformation
and political landscape of Europe throughout the sixteenth century. The Catholic A European religious
Church, in partnership with monarchs and the nobility, had long served as the movement to break with the
dominant religion of Western Europe, but by the early sixteenth century, critiques of Catholic Church.
its practices began to multiply. Many saw the Catholic Church as corrupt and driven by
the pope’s involvement in conflicts among European monarchs.
The formation of new denominations such as the Church of England during this
time shattered the dominance of the Catholic Church and profoundly altered personal
beliefs and royal alliances throughout Europe. The resulting conflicts had long-lasting
effects that shaped the following century as well.
Protestant challenges and Catholic attempts to maintain authority led to intense
conflicts. National competition for wealth and colonies in North America among the
Spanish, French, Dutch, and English was complicated by the Protestant Reformation.
Spanish and French Catholicism shaped their colonial efforts, as did Protestantism in
the Netherlands and England.
Protestantism grew in England with support from the monarchy in the 1530s.
When the pope refused to annul the marriage of King Henry VIII (reigned 1509–1547)
and Catherine of Aragon, Henry publicly rejected papal authority and established the
Church of England, with himself at its head as “defender of the faith.” Despite the

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