Growth Through Exploration and Conquest
The expansion of Christianity through exploration and conquest was one of the most far-reaching developments in global history. Beginning in the fifteenth century, European powers such as Spain, Portugal, France, and later England and the Netherlands embarked on vast voyages of exploration that led to the discovery and colonization of new lands across the Americas, Africa, and Asia. These explorations were not driven solely by economic or political ambitions. They were also deeply tied to a religious impulse. European monarchs often viewed their colonial missions as extensions of Christendom, believing it their sacred duty to convert non-Christian peoples and bring them under the influence of the Church.
Christian missionaries accompanied explorers, settlers, and soldiers into newly claimed territories. In Spanish and Portuguese colonies, the Catholic Church played an especially prominent role, with orders such as the Jesuits, Franciscans, and Dominicans founding missions, schools, and churches throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of Africa and Asia. The conversion of indigenous populations was often seen as a moral justification for conquest, portrayed as saving souls from paganism or idolatry. This missionary effort was sometimes sincere and compassionate, but it also worked hand in hand with systems of domination and exploitation. Conversion frequently came at the cost of indigenous autonomy, culture, and belief.
In the Americas, native spiritual traditions were often suppressed or destroyed as missionaries sought to replace them with Christian teachings. Sacred sites were transformed into churches, indigenous rituals were banned, and native languages were sometimes replaced with European tongues. Entire civilizations, such as the Aztecs and Incas, saw their religious systems dismantled by force or through systematic campaigns of cultural assimilation. In Africa and Asia, Christian missions had more complex encounters. They found established religious systems such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism that offered organized resistance to conversion efforts. Nevertheless, Christianity took root in certain regions, particularly along trade routes or in areas where colonial authorities provided protection and patronage for missions.
The Protestant powers also joined this global expansion. English and Dutch colonization carried Protestant versions of Christianity into North America, parts of the Caribbean, and southern Africa. While their approach was less centralized than the Catholic missions, they too intertwined religion with empire. In North America, Puritans and other settlers saw their colonies as “new Israels,” chosen by God to build a righteous society. Yet even there, the process of settlement led to the displacement and devastation of indigenous peoples and the suppression of their spiritual heritage.
Throughout these centuries, the relationship between Christianity and colonialism was deeply paradoxical. On one hand, it resulted in the widespread global presence of Christianity, turning it into the world’s largest religion. Churches, schools, and hospitals were established in many regions, some of which became centers of education and social reform. On the other hand, the methods of expansion were often coercive and destructive, eroding local traditions and justifying systems of slavery and exploitation.
By the nineteenth century, the missionary movement took on new life during the so-called “Age of Empire.” Missionary societies expanded rapidly, fueled by the belief that the Christian message could bring moral and civil advancement to colonized peoples. Yet these efforts remained intertwined with European power and cultural superiority. The legacy of this period continues to shape global Christianity today, as the faith has taken deep roots in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, often in dynamic and indigenous forms.
Thus, the spread of Christianity through exploration and conquest was both a story of spiritual zeal and imperial ambition. It brought the Christian faith to millions but did so through a process that frequently silenced and displaced older spiritual worlds, leaving a complex inheritance of faith, loss, and cultural transformation that still echoes through history.