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At the time of William Carey, there were probably only a few hundred Protestant missionaries in the world. They never numbered more than a few thousand during the following decades. By 1900, even after a second burst of Protestant missions, there were only 15,000 European and American Protestant missionaries throughout the world. Those who went had short careers; many died within the first two years on the field. Thus the numbers remained quite small.

But the magnitude of the modern missions movement must not be measured by the number of missionaries. It must be measured by the growth of the church.

In 1800, perhaps 1 percent of Protestant Christians lived in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. By 1900, this number had grown to 10 percent. Today, at least 67 percent of all active Protestant Christians live in countries once considered foreign mission fields. And the church is still growing rapidly, even explosively, in many areas—Korea, sub-Saharan Africa, Singapore, and the Peoples’ Republic of China.

Consider this remarkable turnaround. Only 200 years ago, Protestant Christianity was almost exclusively Western. Now Protestants are strongest in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. From a Christian standpoint, the modern missionary movement has turned the world upside down.

What caused this movement? Why did it start?

The first European Protestant missionaries to Asia landed in India almost a century before Carey. Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau were Pietists from the University of Halle (in Germany) who went to the Danish colony of Tranquebar in India in 1706. More than fifty Pietist missionaries from Germany followed them to India during that century.

Pietism also influenced the young Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, who became the leader of the Moravian movement. In 1732 the Moravian believers began to send missionaries all over the world—to 28 different countries in 28 years.

Susannah Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley, was greatly influenced by reading the memoirs of Ziegenbalg and Plutschau. Her sons deeply felt the spiritual impact of the Moravians, and their Methodist movement birthed many missionaries in the 1800s.

Evangelical revivals in the 1700s were a second major factor in the explosion of missionary activity. Jonathan Edwards, a leader of the first Great Awakening in North America, had a deep concern for missions. He encouraged concerts of prayer, which were organized in Scotland and North America. Perhaps most important, he published the journal of David Brainerd, who died after a brief but intense ministry with native Americans in central New Jersey. Carey later was inspired by Brainerd’s journal.

The evangelical awakening in England was led primarily by John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield. The movement led to renewal in various churches, and Carey was awakened in his faith by the movement. It is significant that Carey wrote his Enquiry missions manifesto only one year after John Wesley died.

The political and commercial context was a third factor. During the 1500s and 1600s, missions from Europe were carried on almost exclusively by Roman Catholics. The mission efforts were supported by the major Roman Catholic maritime powers—Spain, Portugal, and later France.

But by the early 1600s, the British East India Company was trading in India. Great Britain gradually began to control land there, and a century later nearly all of India was incorporated into the British Empire. England, with its growing commercial interests, had become the dominant maritime power of the world. News of Captain Cook’s explorations in the South Pacific came back to England, expanding peoples’ understanding of the world. When Carey read The Last Voyage of Captain Cook, it stirred his interest in missions.

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