Throughout the development of European history, empires rose and fell due to pressures surrounding power and prestige. Empires widened their boundaries for the benefit of gaining more religious follows, money, or political influence. Those three aspects of territorial expansion led to the diffusion of information, techniques, and power. Also, they all led to the globalization of European views and political practices. The spread of European ideals through globalization caused for other countries to reproduce European religion, politics, and societal practices. As the cycle of empires began to develop, religion became the main focus for each kingdom. In Mesopotamia, the religion was polytheistic, meaning there were multiple Gods to worship, …show more content…
Social inequalities constantly remained prevalent throughout all of the rises and collapses of the Western Kingdoms. Slaves usually held the lowest level of the social ladder because they were either prisoners of war, racially different, or being punished for committing a crime. The lower and slave classes of society were not taught how to read nor were they able to achieve much greatness because their elite counter parts were gaining all of the successes. Power enabled wealth and control, which the lower class did not have an opportunity to get (Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt). As Empires began to grow, peasant revolts became customary. The revolts usually revolved around the issues of better treatment of the peasants and serfs, more freedom, and more movement throughout the strict social system (Renaissance, April 12). The social distinction between the elites and the poor people usually provided regulations which were meant to be followed. Lower class citizens and slaves were the scapegoats of each empire and bolstered the stigma of needing separation, due to their disgusting living …show more content…
As the groups of people began to grow, the need to know more occurred, thus spurring the creation of religion. Religion, in the beginning, maintained a polytheistic outlook on life. Polytheism religions had multiple Gods and had spiritual aspects intertwined with the beliefs of the people. Religion gave people answers for their questions and emphasized the creation of the earth and humans. Once civilization became more technologically advanced, religion morphed from its polytheistic roots to a monotheistic style. People now devoted themselves to one God or one Deity. With differing religious views rising, the increase of tension amongst nations accompanied. Wars would erupt to spread their religiosity and faith to the next nations, thus emphasizing the Europeanization and globalization of the western world. Another aspect of Europeanization are the political structures of the empires. Once people abandoned their nomadic life, gender roles became prevalent and significant for each society. Women did not have as much responsibility as the men, contradicting the rise of male roles. Men took on more responsibility and control, which spread into the varying kingdoms throughout the region. The rapid growth of empires led to the creation of laws and regulations and governmental structures which would serve the King. This type of governmental style was mirrored from Egypt
1. Alexander did many risky things that affected Afro-Eurasia and some ended up paying off for him and Afro-Eurasia in the end. Some of the risky things that Alexander did was moving towards and conquering a lot of unknown land. By doing this Afro-Eurasia spread with Alexander’s risky and almost dangerous actions/decisions. 2.
The wars that were fought brought massive changes to the cultures, religions, and traditions. Each greek experienced the changes differently, depending on where they lived, whether it was in the country, or different parts of the city or suburbs. The towns had a wide variety of religions and cultures, somewhat like a homogeneous mixture, so no two people were expected to worship the same religion or to take part in the same cultural values. There also were institutions of cults during this time period which were dedicated to rulers in many Hellenistic Kingdoms. Alexander’s missions and conquests were successful and caused the Greek culture to spread rapidly in the east and in Egyptian civilizations.
For centuries civilization has evolved and spread across the globe, causing for many cultures, traditions, and especially religions to develop. Even in ancient societies such as Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, religion was one of, if not, the most important aspect of an individual 's life. The religions found in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt would shape how relationships within society functioned, including how communities related themselves to the divine and the role of leaders and priests. Furthermore, these religions would also affect how each of these societies thought about justice and even influenced attitudes toward the afterlife.
Moreso was the ideology ruling Europe itself. One key idea was Social Darwinism – a proposition of Herbert Spencer that posited that some groups of humans were more advanced than others (whites more than blacks) and as such the whites were just in subjugating the blacks in a case of survival of the fittest. Another prominent motivation was the need for cheap labor and raw materials to keep the booming economy and production abroad afloat. All of which contribute to the ultimate goal of being a world superpower. Every nation in Europe wanted to be a superpower, and all of the respective nations recognized that this endeavor would require a massively powerful navy.
Religion played an important role in civilization as government laws and divine kingship derived from it. Both civilizations were quite similar, but acquired some differences unique to each civilization. These differences include the environment, divine kingship, and sense of security from either nature or law. The idea and practices of ancient Mesopotamia originated from the Sumerians. Moreover, both Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilization diffused their practices and ideas to other ancient civilizations like the Hebrews and the Greeks.
“For example, the only people who were allowed to vote in Athens were male citizens of Athenian descent who were age eighteen or older, meaning that only approximately 40,000 out of the approximate 260,000 people could vote.” (Ancient Greek Democracy, History.com) The Dark Ages were defined by serfs who worked the land; nobles, the upper class citizens; and vassals, loyal followers of the noble. “Feudalism is the social system that existed in Europe during the Dark Ages in which serfs and vassals worked and fought for nobles who gave them protection and the use of land.” (Merriam-Webster, Feudalism) “Social divisions also appeared during the Renaissance and consisted of five classes that varied in nature and number.”
The main gods then created less powerful gods who ruled different aspects of the Earth like Utu and Nanna, gods of the sun and moon, respectively. Not knowing much on how the world worked, religion filled in the blanks for people living in Mesopotamia. Their gods had divine ruling and conducted every natural action -- including forces of nature, life and death, good and evil etc. Ziggurat, a local temple, was where everyone met to praise the gods.
Thesis Statement: Mesopotamians and Hebrews are depicted as very different when it comes to religious beliefs, but actually seem to have many similarities in many ways and has led to many of their laws and social stratification correlating. Topic Sentence 1: Since the ancient Hebrews were Monotheistic and the Mesopotamians were Polytheistic, they are naturally assumed to be completely unlike each other; that is simply not the case with these specific civilizations. Topic Sentence 2: The Gods or God in both the Polytheistic and Monotheistic religions have similar traits, but the beliefs of the civilians in both cultures can be viewed as different.
Religion has the power to positively or negatively affect a civilization, depending on how it is practiced. Religion can often unify people because everyone agrees on a higher power, but it can also cause conflict when people all believe that their religion is the only “correct” one. Ancient civilizations, such as the Islamic and Mauryan Empires have been impacted by religion. Religion also impacts different regions today, especially Iran.
Throughout humanity, humans have been isolated to social classes and divided due to wealth, and status. Europe during 1450 to 1700 was issuing a major problem because poverty was common throughout Europe. This was a major problem as poverty was one of the factors of the high death rates because of starvation. As a result, many different European countries including the Spanish, France, Great Britain, and Netherlands, spoke up to the occasion in different attitudes and responses. Many individuals whether they are rulers, doctors, artists, council members had a different view to the poor as some will have a negative connotation portraying the unfortunate as idleness, while others will show sympathy and positivity in their ideas.
The higher classes of the society held strong connection which makes mockery of law and order, thus spreading unjustness in the
First, Eurocentrism plays a role in the three sources because most of Europe uses their culture to judge people of other cultures and Eurocentrism is the reason why Europe claims land on territories inhabited by other people. Second, imperialism plays a major role in the three sources because each nationality from Europe wanted to become bigger and better than the others. Finally, the two sources connect to assimilation because the Spanish and Portuguese planned to force the indigenous people into believing European traditions and
The clergy was starting to get more of a chance of education and the peasants were not. The class difference was destroying everyone as a
However, there still was a large distinction between the rich and the poor. Many people during this time period where wealthy and believe they had superiority over everyone. It was a very
Ancient people being unaware about the outside world created for themselves the hierarchy of Gods to ask for protection and support. Example: Paganism had a tendency to be polytheistic. People worshipped a variety of gods and goddesses, spirits representing national and local heroes, as well as natural phenomena. Pagans also honored their ancestry and ancestors.