Ruins of Oldest Protestant Church in America Found at Jamestown

The Christian Post ^ | 11-14-11 | Michael Gryboski

[colorado tanker]

Religion and politics were inextricably intertwined in seventeenth century England, even as a ground for war on several occasions.

[muawiyah]

The 17th Century is when the events called “The Thirty Years War” happened. At the end they all signed the “Peace of Westphalia”, a series of treaties that established the modern nation state and which ENDED the Western and Southern European practice of fighting wars over religion.

[colorado tanker]

The Spanish thought what would become the Eastern U.S. was worthless and didn’t much mind the English settlements. There was no gold and the Spanish didn’t know until it was too late that it could grow tobacco.

[muawiyah]

Not quite exactly ~ during the earliest periods the Spanish were sending in agents to study the area ~ and they found gold. Most of it is still there.

It's along a feature called the Fall Line.

What happened toward 1570 was an intensification of the generally dry conditions that had prevailed from about 1500 to 1850.

What that meant was that the Tide Water (below the Fall Line) became fairly uniformly salt water. The only freshwater was available above the Fall Line.

Eventually as Virginia was settled the main focus was moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg, and finally to Richmond. Williamsburg was "uphill" and Richmond was above the Fall Line.

It's still the same way. My closest river is the Potomac. It's below the Fall Line. There have been times it was brackish all the way to Great Falls.

The Spanish had their hands full with the Americas. King Philippe II/III opened the East Coast to various groups ~ except the Dutch. It's in the text of the Treaty of London (1604). Otherwise just about anybody in any Hapsburg realm could come here. Once the English figured out what the death rate was from malaria, et al, they did not object to Eastern and Central Europeans coming here.

[colorado tanker]

In the British Isles I was thinking more about the Civil War, the failed rebellion against James II, the Glorious Revolution and William of Orange's campaign in Ireland. Again, politics and religion were intertwined, but the issue that drove most to want to rid themselves of James was his determination if not to try to Catholocize England to at least allow a Catholic monarchy and the appointment of Catholic officials. In Ireland, besides defeating James' last army, William's objective was to end the persecution of the Protestant settlers although in doing so he ushered in the persecution of the Catholic majority.

I agree that the last of the religious wars were fought in the 17th Century. The great wars of the 18th Century were about politics, power and wealth.

[colorado tanker]

Well, the Hapsburgs were a bit tetchy about the Dutch, since they had taken away one of their most valuable possessions by achieving independence.

[muawiyah]

We’ve been without a good religious war for so long that most of our major mouthpieces can’t imagine that the Moslems want to have one.

[SunkenCiv]

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[kalee]

Yes, Church of England.