What is one reason colonists came to America?

There were many reasons colonists came to America, and the USCIS accepts several correct answers including freedom, political liberty, religious freedom, economic opportunity, practice their religion, and escape persecution. Religious persecution drove many groups: the Pilgrims fled persecution in England and the Netherlands, Quakers came to Pennsylvania, Catholics to Maryland, and Huguenots to South Carolina. Economic opportunity drove others, as land was scarce and expensive in Europe but plentiful in the colonies. Political liberty was a motivation as the colonies developed self-governing traditions. The colonists came to live in the existing communities, not to find Spanish colonies or create kingdoms (in fact they later rebelled against monarchy in 1776).