What would happen if the Pilgrims and Puritans had stayed in Europe, not settled in North America?

fashbasher

Banned
The Pilgrims for instance had tried to live in the Netherlands first before getting a royal grant to move to Massachusetts. What if they and the Puritans had also been excluded from North America and instead had been forced to try their luck in Continental Europe? Does this result in a longer and bloodier Wars of Religion, and do other such "intentional communities" (Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, Fourier utopians, non-conforming Protestants, etc) also stay in Europe and try to carve out their own place independent of the nation-states? Lastly, what becomes of the US? Does it become more like Canada politically and culturally? Is it "blacker" demographically without the large influxes of European pioneers and farmers?
 
Isn't this OTL? Many (most?) Puritans stayed in England, and formed a significant part of the Parliamentarian forces during the English Civil War.
 

fashbasher

Banned
The point is that almost none of them emigrate, or that the equivalent of Massachusetts Bay Colony (a theocratic Puritan state) forms in Europe.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
the enduring effects are going to be bigger in North America than in Europe or England. French rule in Canada may have better long-term prospects
 
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