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There are a couple of reasons why the Pilgrims fled Europe, but some today are not totally understood. The Pilgrims really lived in turbulent times – there were many uncertainties during their times.
They Wanted Economic Stability and Opportunity
Like tens of millions of newcomers who would follow in their wake to America, the Pilgrims were economic migrants. After working for more than a decade in Leiden’s textile industry, the Pilgrims possessed little beyond their religious freedom. The former farmers lived in poverty, laboring long hours for low pay by weaving, spinning and making cloth. The Pilgrims’ economic hardship made it exceedingly difficult to convince their fellow separatists to join them in Leiden, no matter their religious rights. “Some preferred and chose the prisons in England rather than this liberty in Holland with these afflictions,” Pilgrim leader William Bradford recounted.
They were Affected by the Onset of the Thirty Years War
As the Pilgrims’ economic prospects further dimmed with the collapse of the wool market, the onset of the Thirty Years’ War in Europe and the imminent end of a 12-year truce between Spain and the Dutch Republic threatened the tranquility of their safe haven. The Pilgrims were outcasts fleeing waring Europe.
The Thirty Years’ War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle, famine, and disease, while some areas of modern Germany experienced population declines of over 50%. Related conflicts include the Eighty Years’ War, the War of the Mantuan Succession, the Franco-Spanish War, the Torstenson War, the Dutch-Portuguese War and the Portuguese Restoration War.
The war was traditionally viewed as a continuation of the religious conflict initiated by the 16th-century Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire. The 1555 Peace of Augsburg attempted to resolve this by dividing the Empire into Lutheran and Catholic states, but over the next 50 years the expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries destabilized the settlement. However, while modern commentators accept differences over religion and Imperial authority were important factors in causing the war, they argue its scope and extent were driven by the contest for European dominance between Habsburg-ruled Spain and Austria, and the French House of Bourbon.
The Pilgrims wanted to Evangelize the Native Americans
“The propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world.” Was the banner of William Bradford and the Pilgrims.
The Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620 were devout Christians who believed in the literal truth of the Bible. They believed that God had called them to establish a holy community in which they would worship Him according to the teachings of the Bible. The Pilgrims were also convinced that they had a special mission to spread the gospel to the native people of America.
In 1620, the Pilgrims aboard the ship the Mayflower set sail for America. English Puritans fled their homeland in 1609 and settled in Holland, where they hoped to worship without restrictions. It was obvious to those who were still in Holland after 12 years of self-imposed exile that life wasn’t going as planned. In fact, some members of the Leiden church sailed to America, while others returned home. As a thank you, Governor William Bradford declared three days of feasting and games. Thanksgiving, which has become an iconic event in American mythology, has been observed since the nineteenth century. The Puritans, who had settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony, took them in over time.
The Pilgrims wanted More Religious Toleration and Wanted to Avoid European Temptations
While the Pilgrim population dwindled, their fears swelled that the secular Dutch society that tolerated their religious beliefs also corrupted the morals of their children, causing them to turn away from their church and English identity. Bradford complained that “many of their children” were succumbing to Leiden’s “manifold temptations” and being “drawn away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses.” In the New World, The Pilgrims could start afresh with no corrupt church clergy or corrupt governments – they could start anew with just the bible.
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The Evolving American Meaning of the Pilgrims and Plymouth | Time