Ap World Religions Dbq Analysis

Religion is a force capable of both strengthening and weakening an empire. It is also a source from which much of the literature, art, and government of the ancient and classic periods sprouted from. It can also be used as a way to form a commonality between two distinct cultures in order to facilitate trade and ensure safety. In Document 1, a missionary was attempting to convert a powerful ruler to the Roman Catholic religion. This may have been done for several reasons, but the most likely reason would be to ease the tensions between the two completely different cultures. Whatever the reason may be, missionaries played an important role in cultural diffusion. Ideas were easily spread to other people through missionaries, but the ideas of others were also seen by the missionaries. Missionaries travel the world with their ideas and come back to their homeland having seen new sights and ideas. Sharing the differences of other cultures with the ruler may result in an inspiration to model certain things in their kingdom, empire, or dynasty after the things that the missionaries have seen in completely diverse parts of the world.

Japan has been a home for Shinto and Buddhist religions for centuries. The Christian missionaries during the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries worked hard to evangelize the Japanese nation but could not get desired success. There efforts in past failed partly due to sanctions imposed by the local rulers. The Jesuits missionaries traveled with Spanish and Portuguese traders to many areas of America and Asia-Pacific and established their churches and religious missions. They were funded, sponsored and trained by their respective governments in order to spread Christianity. At several places they preached the Christian faith by force but the aboriginal population did not accept it wholeheartedly. Initially the Jesuits

Christianity and Buddhism are two different religions that developed and spread contemporaneously in during the Classical Period different territories. Both of them share some similarities as well as differences. Both of these religions were founded based upon different principles taught by different people; in Buddhism’s case Gautama Buddha a thinker and in Christianity’s it is Jesus Christ who is a prophet. These two universal doctrines spread in times of chaos, in which citizens of their own territories were looking forward to achieve salvation of any kind. Although alike these two doctrines didn’t have a

Throughout history many universal religions have spread throughout the world. From cities to cities, countries to countries and so on. Christianity and Buddhism are two of the top universal religions that were practiced and spread throughout the early world. A series of events lead to the early and quick spread of Christianity and Buddhism throughout the early world. As turmoil engulfed the Jews in Judea, Christianity arose. The teaching of Christianity began with a Jew named Jesus. At the age of 30, Jesus began preaching the word of God to villagers near the Sea of Galilee. As Jesus preached, significant amounts of groups crowded around him to learn about his teachings, especially when word spread that he had performed acts of healing. Soon Jesus later formed a group of disciples or close followers to help spread his teachings.

The Romantics also appreciated religion. This was in response to the anti-religion aspect of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. As Romanticism was a rejection of Enlightenment thinking, it stressed feeling and emotion rather than logic. Furthermore, the Romantics emphasized the importance of religion and sought for a revival of religion in the 19th century.

Religion has played a very important role in society and the history of mankind for over thousands of years. Originally created by ancient peoples as a way to explain the unknown, religion has greatly evolved and spread across the globe. As new religions have formed and spread, the diversity and similarities between these new religions have also increased, especially due to their geographic locations. Two civilizations in particular with both similar and distinct religions are ancient China, and ancient Egypt. Ancient Chinese religion and ancient Egyptian religion share many things in common with each other, yet at the same time they are

In Japan, Buddhism flourished with their original religion Shintu. Finally, in the Americas, the Mayans and Aztecs practiced their own unique religion. The Roman Catholic Church was the center of Medieval life. Meetings, plays, and concerts, were all held in churches.

Ultimately, the Tokugawa shogunate wanted to maintain political and social stability in Japan. By seizing power, Ieyasu was able to quell domestic unrest but another threat was still presented for total control. Foreign influence proved to be a serious threat to stability within Japan. The initial threat to Japan was presented by Christian missionaries. After an initial introduction to Christianity, the shogunate conducted a purging and outlawed the religion. This led to a prolonged isolation of Japanese society from Western influence. The shogunate wished to prevent daimyo from conspiring with foreigners thus

Tribal religions such as Hinduism and Judaism transformed into larger, universal religions through several different methods. No matter the method, each of the universal religions started with a prophet or messiah. The Buddha, Muhammad, and Jesus each taught a new form of the older religions. Buddhism and Christianity offered an open religion that accepted people of all classes and backgrounds. Islam and Christianity also relied on militaries to conquer and convert people. Whether through openness, trade, politics, or military, each of these new religions spread quickly and were accepted by many people.

The spread of religion first began through contact with neighbouring countries which gradually expand throughout the years. Buddhism and Islam are one of the most widespread religions across Southeast Asian countries like Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Trade merchants and imperial support of the religion were major factors in the facilitation and localization of the spread of Buddhism and Islam within Southeast Asia. However, there were also limitations presented which hindered the development of each religion in within their countries as introduction of newer religions and changes to political and imperial power would have affected the progression to become fully localised pre-1800s.

What this meant was that Buddhism became intertwined with everyday government as well as Confucian values. During the Nara period, a single clan, inspired by the Chinese Tang Dynasty, claimed “imperial authority and introduced a series of reforms designed to centralize Japanese politics” (Bentley and Ziegler 300). These reforms included modeling the imperial court after the Tang dynasty with a Chinese style bureaucracy, diving land equally among the people and providing support for Confucianism and Buddhism (Bentley and Ziegler 300). Prince Shotoku, perhaps the most well-known emperor of early Japanese history, studied Chinese philosophy and became very well versed in Confucianism and Buddhism. He later used that knowledge to write the Seventeen-Article Constitution where he outlined 17 specific laws or principles applied by him to a nation-wide behavior (Shotoku’s Seventeen-Article Constitution-Jushichijo Kenpo 271).

A great example of this is Buddhism in the region of china according to Richard Foltz, “The first clear mention of it is Buddhism in a Chinese source is a reference in the Hou Han shh” (49). The earlier mention of Buddhism in the Hou Han Shh show how “Buddhism had begun to blend with and adapt itself to local religion “(Foltz 49). One of the main regions that helped make the spread of Buddhism possible to China was Sogdiana. In the academic article A Silk Road Legacy:The Spread of Buddhism and Islam the author xinru liu states, “Although the archives of India are of little help, records from other countries, especially China, clearly indicate that from the second to the fourth century c.e. many of the Sogdian traders in China were Buddhists.”(4). The Sogdian traders, who were like “cultural bees” (Foltz 13), were responsible for the introduction of the religion to the Chinese and the translation of the Buddhist texts in china. The Sogdian made it possible for the Chinese to convert to Buddhism breaking down the cultural boundaries of the religion. The spread of the Islamic Religion was different from the spread of Buddhism because it involved a combination of Arab conquest and trade. One of the main conquests of the Arabs was of the Sogdian people. After the Arabian empire had taking control of the Sogdian people they were and “ willing to abandon their previous religions and convert to Islam, provided that their Arab rulers granted them the usual benefits of conversion”(Lui 12). With the Sogdian people converting religions Islam was able to spread out to the eastern Sogdian trading partners. Both Islam and Buddhism enjoyed great success on the Silk Road. Both religions “redirected human aspiration to an external world, transcendental world”( McNeil 106). The idea of an external world was popular among the peasants and they

Traditionally, religions spread slowly. Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, four of the world’s largest religions, each took a millennium to cover their continent of their origin. Planting the seeds of theology takes time and certain doctrines are not so readily accepted. This had been the standard since the advent of organized religion some 5000 years ago. However, this standard for religious spread was shattered with Mohammed’s founding of Islam in the 7th century of the common era. Spreading like wildfire and selling like hotcakes Islam spread to cover all of central Europe achieving what took Hinduism a millennium in a mere 100 to 200 years. This distinct difference in speed can be attributed

For centuries religions have been a primary way of presenting a belief, or idea, in a way that appeals to a vast majority of populations. Religions such as Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism appeal to a higher mass of people reaching, today, into the millions or billions. This kind of spread is capable due to a variety of reasons relating to globalization. Globalization is the integration of new views, cultures, and people that impact the world in various ways. These impacts can be passive or active, and implicit or explicit.1 Religions are not changed by globalization, rather, they are adapted and modified to relate to a larger audience. The United States is a big contributor to the spread of many large religions that have been created into some of the most largely spread religions in history. Buddhism, for example, came to America through immigration of Chinese laborers were brought to California during the time of the Gold Rush of 1849. This led to Buddhism being practiced and taught throughout the United States. This presented the fact that religions come to America and spread greatly across to many people, making the United States a huge participant in the spread of religions. While religions come to America to be spread, there are some that may not reach as many people as wanted. Religions tend to only spread if there are enough people willing to follow the practices or teach its ways. Without people, a religion can die off and not spread like that of Christianity or Islam. This why people are what makes religions spread the most.

In order to keep their cultural and religious heritages existent new adaptations of religions begin to form after the invasion of the Europeans. The