Which sentence best defines the main idea of the passage? the spanish and north america for centuries, people from europe came to north america to settle and explore. different people had different reasons for coming to the new world. many people from spain came to north america for religious reasons. the spanish came to north america to teach native americans about christianity. as the spanish explored, they built missions, which were small settlements run by the catholic church. the spanish missions in north america had other purposes too. in many cases, the missions also served as military outposts. many missions housed soldiers who protected the missions and kept order. the missions the spanish control an area by preventing other countries from establishing colonies. some missions from the 1800s are still standing today.