HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE QUESTIONS - Assignment Example

History Essay Questions Affiliation: How instrumental was trade and invasion in spreading portable religions, including Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism in southern Asia? Which of the two do you believe was the most important with regard to spreading those portable religions? Why? The increase in trading routes opened up inaccessible areas by the traders and hence made it possible for people to access including the invaders and the others who spread religion voluntarily. Trade routes provided good linkage, easier travelling and even security that made it possible for Islam, Buddhism and other religions to be spread to different areas across the world and especially Southern Asia. During the beginning and all through the earlier years of the 2nd Century for example, the Silk Road that had been constructed and whose construction was still going on provided good road for the Buddhists to travel from India and come and spread the religion in parts of Asia like in China. The Silk Road was a large trade route and it constantly had merchants and traders hence it became safe to travel. Other than spreading Buddhism, the Indians also came with their Hinduism doctrines and ideas and came to spread them around other parts of Asia. The result therefore was that South Asia started having more religions other than only Confucius (Liu, 2010). Just like trade routes, invasions by individuals of different religions when they took place also enabled the spread of a different religion in that area depending on the religion of those who invaded the place. During the 8th Century, Moslems invaded parts of Southern Asia and the invasion ironically took place via the Silk Road. They destroyed the Buddhists icons and symbols associated with that religion and in turn replaced them with building of mosques in those areas. This thus ensured the spread of Islam in that area (Federspiel, 2007). Compared with invasion, trade routes were more important and instrumental in spreading the religions because the spread was not forced but rather voluntary. The spread via trade routes also ensured that the ideologies of that religion were spread in far and wider areas since the trade routes were many including the unofficial ones. There was also enough time to talk to the people in those areas and convince them to join the religion and the results of such voluntary spread were wider than the forced spread. 2. Based on the analysis of McNeill and McNeill (The Human Web a Birds-Eye View of World History), identify and describe the factors that shaped the life cycle of the Ming Dynasty from its birth to its decline and fall. Ming Dynasty was one of the ruling dynasties of China whose rule began in 1368 and ended in 1644. The dynasty came into ruling after the decline of the Yuan Dynasty and it can be said to have been characterized by an orderly government and also social stability and this made it stand out among other ruling dynasties in that country. After its decline, it was replaced by the Qing Dynasty. Its success and decline (life cycle) during the 276 years of its ruling was majorly as a result of several factors discussed below though not limited to only those factors (McNeill and McNeill, 2003). One of the greatest factors that made the dynasty last in power for such a long time was the creation of a vast and very powerful military which had over one million military personnel. The military power prevented attacks by others outside the dynasties and always ensured that there was peace and stability in China which was effective in later on developments and successes due to its protection. The dynasty also managed to create a large agriculture base which ensured that revenue to the dynasty always flowed in and the citizens were not starving. The success of this agriculture was also largely as a result of the military which guarded the trading routes and protected markets where the agricultural products were taken to. As a result of this agricultural success, communication also improved and this also contributed to another great success of the dynasty. All this took place between 1368 and 1398. The dynasty traded silver with Japan but during the 15th Century (1606-1644), this trade began to decline sharply and hence affecting greatly the stable revenue of the dynasty. Natural calamities also played a large part in destroying the agricultural base and this weakened the economy even further and led to death of people from starvation. People of the dynasty including the military started having differing ideologies and with that, the rebels started challenging the dynasty. Li Zicheng contributed greatly to the fall of the dynasty with his constant invasion of the declining dynasty. Qing finally destroyed the last remaining roots of the dynasty and took over the ruling. 3. Identify and describe the impact of the intrusion of Europeans on the economic life, social organization and political systems of the major American civilizations, including the Maya, Inca and Aztecs. The Maya, Aztec and Inca were known to be one of the greatest and most civilized places in Mexico. This civilization was acknowledged even by the Europeans before they invaded them in 1519. The intrusion of the European and especially the Spanish who invade the area brought the civilizations down and affected their political, social and economic life and even this almost brought to an end these three civilizations. The rulers of Aztec, Maya and Inca had established a strong political and economic base in their regions due to the fact that they were hard workers. Their social life can be said to be closely knitted and that characterized by cohesion mostly as a result of their common religion. However, with the intrusion of Spanish whom the rulers thought were gods, they managed to destroy these empires in a span of a few years (Wright, 2005). Their economic life was first destroyed by the looting of their fortune and wealth especially the gold and other valuable treasure which they used to trade. Since they depended largely on agriculture, the Europeans destroyed and burnt their crops and other agricultural products in an effort to weaken them. The cultural artifacts including their art work of sculptures which was a strong attraction to other empires and which they thus used to make a living with were also destroyed. Politically, they made the rulers fight against each other and therefore bringing enormity which was so severe that they could not help each other to fight the Europeans. They also brought strange diseases to the area especially measles which they knew had no sure in that area and which weakened not only the civilians but also the military and hence conquered the area without much resistance. They also had strong weapons of guns and cannons compared to the swords and spears of the civilization and hence defeated them (Ktke and Kotke, 2007). As mentioned earlier, the civilizations were cohesive in nature as a result of their religion. The Europeans brought about Catholic doctrines which divided the society and hence the beginning of weakening them socially. Fighting the communities against each other also further acted to weaken the social bonds. Destruction of their cultural beliefs was almost the final blow and the Europeans used the division to easily conquer the empires. 4. Explain how the Renaissance helped spawn the Protestant Reformation. Secondly, explain how technological advances, especially the printing press, contributed to the development of the Protestant Reformation? The renaissance is the rebirth period that took place in the 14th Century and acted to spread ideologies and question others. It spread from Italy to other parts of Europe. This period spread the ideologies of not only art and literature but also those of religion. The sole religion before this period was Catholic and with the questioning and rebirth of ideologies the protestant reformation started coming up. The protestant reformation was a form of movement which was opposed to the medieval Christianity forms and literature. Just like renaissance aimed to change the medieval works, the protestant reformation aimed to change these existing Christianity ideologies and the thinking of people from the Catholic ways that were seen to be oppressive and not entirely truthful (Bergin and Speake, 2004). Martin Luther started questioning the doctrines of salvation and penance according to the Catholic Church. These questions made him make different interpretations of the bible other than the one by the Catholic priest and this raised ideas of individualism and ability of human beings to choose between right and wrong and not just act according to the definition provided by the Roman Catholic doctrines. The renaissance was characterized by major reforms and changes in technology. Printing press was developed and hence people were free to share their ideologies with the rest of the world through printing (Duiker and Spielvogel, 2008). The renaissance period saw an evolution printing press and this further acted to support the printing of these differing and questioning ideologies by Martin Luther. People got a hold of the printed documents and started joining Luther in his different religious path and thinking which came to be known as the protestant movement. Other than printing only the works of Martin Luther, the printing press also printed the ideologies and protestant doctrines of a French scholar: John Calvin which supported the work of Martin Luther was also printed. His work “The Institutes of Christian Religion” acted further to support the protestant reformation and pull people further away from the oppressive doctrines of the Catholic Church. The printing press made this possible by printing and distributing to different areas these works hence changing the thinking of people in Europe. 5. What were some of the characteristics of the Byzantine Civilization that set it apart from developing European Civilization during the Late Middle Ages? Byzantine Empire was the Greek-speaking Roman Empire. Its civilization though almost similar to those of Europe was different. The differences between the two civilizations during the late middle ages were largely as a result of the characteristics of the Byzantine Empire. The late middle age was characterized by religion, language and culture and that is what set the differences between these two civilizations (Duiker and Spielvogel, 2010). Culture was one of the differing characteristics. The culture was based on religion roots. The European civilization dealt and was staunch followers of the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrines with no other religion prevailing in that civilization. Byzantine civilization on the other hand had Orthodox Christianity together with aspects of Catholicism. This therefore made there be differences in versions of Christianity. The different communication languages present in European civilization made communication a bit slow and hence many issues were either misinterpreted or misinformed. On the other hand, the Byzantine Empire had one common language of communication. This made it easier for trade, religion and other civilization markers to evolve smoothly without hitches during this period. The other characteristic which made Byzantine civilization apart from European civilization was that it concentrated on a smaller territory and hence any developments being made no matter how small had greater impacts. This was unlike in Europe with its large population and development or changes took longer for their impact to be felt and even longer before consensus were reached due to their diversity. Even though the period was the same, the Byzantine civilization had greatly surpassed European civilization in the different aspects mentioned above and also in the economic and political unity because of their cohesiveness and their smaller number. This therefore made civilization in the Byzantine Empire more successful than in Europe. References Bergin, T. and Speake, J. (2004). Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the Reformation. New York: Infobase Publishing. Duiker, W. J. and Spielvogel, J. J. (2008). World History, Volume 1. New York: Cengage Learning. Duiker, W. J. and Spielvogel, J. J. (2010). The Essential World History. New York: Cengage Learning. Federspiel, H. M. (2007). Sultans, Shamans, and Saints: Islam and Muslims in Southeast Asia. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press. Ktke, W. and Kotke, W. (2007). The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future. Massachusetts: AuthorHouse. Liu, X. (2010). The Silk Road in World History. New York: Oxford University Press. McNeill, J. R. and McNeill, W. H. (2003). The Human Web: A Birds-Eye View of World History. New York: W. W. Norton. Wright, R. (2005). Stolen Continents: 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas. Indianapolis: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Read More