Contributions to democracy

Immigration contributed to the eventual democratization of the American colonies because imigrants from all parts of Europe sought to free themselves from some sort of oppression, eventually leading to the ideas of freedom which democracy is based on. A major reason why some Europeans fled to the Americas was to avoid religious persecution, which led to an eventual diversification among religions in America, probably larger than ever witnessed in Europe. This diversification caused a more openess to new religions in order for the people of the Americas to be able to co-exist. Ultimately this acceptence of many religions meant there must be some sort of seperation between the government and church, a key democratic idea. Also, apart from promoting more acceptance for religion, many of these non-Anglo colonizers were not deeply rooted with the British crown, which meant the spreading of more anti English monarch ideals which eventually caused the rebellions. Since many of these settlers were not English they felt no loyalty to England therefore making it necessary for some form of self government, or a democracy. The Great Awakening also played a significant role in the spreading of democracy in the American society. This revival of religion made it somewhat more liberal and less controlling. This means that religion would no longer dictate the lives of the colonizers, leaving this job to a new government. Also this movement led to the undermining of the old, religion based education and allowed for the oppertunity of many people to receive an education and thus question old forms of government. Mostly the Great Awakening represented the first big movement among the American people as a whole and therefore unifying them. This unification of the American people made all of these diverse people come together as a single group to realize that thay shared common history and experiences. Unification plays an important role in the longing for a government to represent this enormously diverse group as opposed to one who was purely English. These ideas paved the road for the democratic ideals to seep into the American society.