Religion tools of empires

These deeper interactions between the ruling faith and the majority faith led to, and were a result of, popular religious movements such as Sufism and the Bhakti Movement. Additionally, a brand new syncretic religion known as Sikhism emerged in northern South Asia, containing many elements of Islam monotheism and Hinduism reincarnation and karma.

It is not an accident that Sikhism emerged in northern South Asia where Islamic-Hindu contacts were strongest. However, many Sikhs do not describe their religion as only syncretic; and, all religions are syncretic in some ways.

In the broader Islamic World, the political competition between the Ottomans and Safavids over territory and trade intensified the division between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

The Sunni-Shia split occurred around CE, long before either empire, but the conflict between them intensified, especially considering the Ottoman Sultan claimed the title of Caliph, leader of the Muslim world, and the Safavid Shahs also claimed divine connection via the Imams leaders of the Shia community. In the Americas, both the Aztec and Inca Empires continued earlier religious traditions that had developed in those regions. The Aztec religious pantheon included several Mayan deities and the Aztecs used the Mayan script as well.

The Incas continued the religious practices of the Moche who came before them and the Chavin before them influenced the Moche , specifically that of worshipping the sun and moon, though in the Moche tradition the moon was more powerful.

Both the Aztecs and Incas practiced human sacrifice, as did almost every Pre American Culture before them, though the Aztecs in particular practiced it to a much greater degree.

Was this guide helpful? Create a free account to bookmark content and compete in trivia. Play this on HyperTyper. This in turn led them to concentrate on colonising their territories in Africa and Asia.

Here, financial gain and religion played a large part. They had discovered gold in Africa, established sugar plantation on the western islands around the coast, and beaten the Muslims on their own ground capturing Cueta in the process.

Their other aim was then to find the legendary Christian king Prester John who would help them spread the word of God outside of Europe. Historians argue that this quest was ideologically of the utmost importance to their crusading ambition of bringing Catholic Christianity to the heathen. Hernan Cortez meeting the Aztec king in Tenochtitlan. It also seems to suggest that this religious dedication ultimately contributed to the downfall of Portugal in India, when the Dutch VOC, who were comparatively completely uninterested in spreading their own Calvinist religious views, were able to make subsequent changes in the established trading systems which were linked to the maximisation of their own profits to the detriment of the profits of the Portuguese, eventually causing them to lose their trade to the Dutch.

They saw it as in their best interests to westernise themselves as much as they could, as it gave them a degree of elitism over fellow natives, socially. There were instances of inter-racial marriages and relationships.

Interaction with the local populations, if there were any, seemed to be restricted to ensuring they had lodgings and provisions. We can see from this example that provision of resources and financial gain were the important factors. We could argue against this example being part of Imperial expansion for the reason that the fishermen involved were not staking a claim on the land territory for England. Theories have long since been offered that when the assistance from Britain failed to arrive, the remaining colonists established a relationship, and later integrated, with the local native population.

And very much, for better or for worse. A global history of Christianity, or of Buddhism, or of Islam, or any other world faith, is of necessity an imperial history. As I will show over the coming weeks, empire is a critical missing dimension in the history of global religion. Get newsletters and updates Close. Also, send me the Evangelical Newsletter and special offers. Also, send me the Evangelical Newsletter.

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