Final answer:
Early explorers set the stage for the Pilgrims in the New World, mapping out territories and influencing the development of Enlightenment ideals. The Pilgrims learned survival skills from Native Americans like Squanto and faced the harsh realities of colonization, which included conflicts with indigenous populations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The early explorers played a significant role in shaping the experiences and survival of the Pilgrims who arrived in the New World after them. The explorers expanded European horizons, leading to the Enlightenment ideals that influenced the Pilgrims. These ideals eventually contributed to the American Revolution and the Constitution. Explorers like John Smith named sites like Plymouth, which the Pilgrims later settled. Crucially, the Pilgrims benefited from the earlier interactions between Native Americans and Europeans. Squanto, a Native American from the Patuxet tribe who had prior contact with Englishmen, taught the Pilgrims vital survival skills such as growing corn and fishing.
Ultimately, the Pilgrims and Puritans sought to create a society based on reformed Protestantism, distinct from the Church of England. Their arrival, survival, and evolution of society in the Americas were heavily linked to the groundwork laid by early explorers and the complex interactions with the indigenous populations, which included both violent conflicts and critical alliances such as the 1621 peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe.