Puritan Conquistadors: Iberianizing the Atlantic, 1550-1700. JORGE CAÑIZARES-ESGUERRA: Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006.

Abstract

On the one hand stands the Spanish crusading hero, fiercely riding his horse in the spirit of the Reconquista, vanquishing the newly discovered land; on the other hand, the pious British Puritan, hard at work from dawn to dusk, endlessly seeking to prove his worthiness to the Lord. The former, an embodiment of chivalric values; the latter, prefigured by the Old Testament. Two distinct types that chose separate colonial paths which ultimately led to the formation of two different, almost opposite, societies.