How did the Protestant Reformation affect the competition among European powers in the colonization of the Americas?

The Portuguese and Spanish colonies were eminently Catholic because the metropolises were Catholic (Spain was the most conservative and reactionary bastion of Catholicism in Europe, the craddle of Counterreformation), and Reformation and Protestants were fought and excluded in the 16th century. Meanwhile, most English settlers in the New World were believers of the Protestant faith and many of them had left England for religious purposes; their versions of Protestantism were stricter than the official practice of the Anglican Church.

Explanation:

it increased 6 percent and reached that in 1980

the right answer for the question that is being asked and shown above is that: "their policy of "divide and rule" pitted political groups against each other to keep any one group from becoming too powerful.  " the  participant in european imperialism is being described below is that  their policy of "divide and rule" pitted political groups against each other to keep any one group from becoming too powerful.