Why Did The Hapsburg Empire Use Of Religion

In the time period circa 1450 to circa 1650, empires characterized by centralized rule, heterogeneous populations, and large geographic territories, ruled diverse parts of the world (Lecture 2, January 7). These empires aimed¬¬¬ to expand and further their access to more material and financial resources to further the magnitude of their influence and power. Religion helped constitute a unified ideology for empires to administer their rule over diverse peoples and territories (Lecture 7, January 21). More specifically, religion as a ruling ideology helped create uniformity within vast and diverse territories for empires. Two cases that show evidence of empire use of religion in this manner are the Hapsburg Empire and its relationship to Catholicism

This relationship was rooted in the first Inquisition of 1450, when the Spanish forcefully converted Sephardic Jews and Muslims to the Catholic faith or face expulsion. Catholicism then solidified itself within the Hapsburg Empire when Carlos 1 merged Spain with the Empire to become the newly crowned Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V in 1519 (Lecture 7, January 21). Catholicism was the driving force of unity for the Hapsburg Empire as it conquered diverse territories of different peoples. When the Spanish reached the Americas, the Empire used Catholicism to justify their territorial aspirations against the Aztec and Incan Empires in the New World (Panama, 474). Catholicism helped the Empire justify the conquering of new territories and replacement of “inferior” cultures and indigenous, pagan practices (Sepulveda, “On the Causes of Just with the

O’Toole argues while Catholicism created a unity throughout different parts of the Hapsburg Empire, it also created dissent from within. For example, displeased with what he saw as a corrupt and self-indulgent Catholic Church in the 1500s, a German monk named Martin Luther wrote his Ninety-Five Theses, which highlighted the indulgent practices by the Church. “Why does not the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?” (Luther, Thesis 86). Consequently, his Ninety-Five Theses sparked the Protestant Reformation, which challenged the church monarchy and helped split Christianity in two: Catholic and Protestant. As a result, a domino effect, which surpassed religion, led to change within European polities that facilitated a “divided Christian Europe” (Lecture 7, January