I just can’t understand why the Europeans thought it was a good idea to colonize America, a land that was at that time a total mystery to them. I read somewhere that they were motivated by potential of economic growth and religion. But somehow I’m not convinced that was a good idea to go to America in the first place. My reasoning is that America at that time was a totally new continent, and the Europeans didn’t know much about a lot of things there. As far as they could see, it was a land full of jungles, strange creatures and inhabited by strange people who didn’t speak their language. So it’s hard for me to understand why they thought a land like that had potential to be a good place for the economy of their homeland. Sending people there cost money and it could be a very risky business if it turned out to be unprofitable, and if I was a ruler of a European country, I just couldn’t see myself sending a large number of people to a land I didn’t even know very well.

And about religion, apparently some people thought the church was corrupted and going to America would somehow enable them to worship their God better. But as I said before, the European knew very little about America and Native Americans. Wouldn’t they think about the possibility that this new land they were moving to could somehow contained things that were “unholy”, incompatible with their belief?

I think I’m missing something important here. Can you help me understand the motivation of the Europeans back then?