"As it happened, the merging of religion and nationalism furthered the cause of European colonization in the New World by helping spur intense competition in a variety of ways between nation states. Europeans, even as they fought over the Reformation, were in competition for economic resources and trade. Nations were attempting to become the most dominant power in Europe and saw colonies as the best means to achieve that goal quickly. And they were also in competition over propagating their brand of Christianity. The leading imperial powers in what was to become the United States all wrestled with faith and nationalism in different ways."