The societies of West Africa, Europe, and North America exhibited similarities and differences in their religious beliefs, values, and government systems. These contrasts and similarities were further made apparent during European expansion across the Atlantic and the subsequent new cross cultural interactions that were created. One way in which the societies of West Africa, Europe, and North America diverged was in their belief systems. Unlike Europe and North America, West Africa gradually adopted Islam in addition to its traditional religions. Islam diffused through the trans-Saharan trade with North Africa and by the 1200’s was assimilated into the Mali and Songhai Empire. The major benefit of taking up Islam was that it allowed for more wide ranging trade contacts with the non-African Muslim world as well as North Africa (“Pre-colonial African Religion”). On the other hand, Europe was the only society with Catholicism and Protestantism as its major religions after the Protestant Reformation. In other words, Europe was strictly monotheistic whereas West Africa combined Islam and traditional religions based on …show more content…
Both Europe and West Africa followed a system of centralized rule. In West Africa the kingdoms of Mali, Songhai, and Kongo had centralized governments capable of collecting taxes, regulating commerce, and mobilizing armies. For instance, the kingdom of Kongo consisted of smaller kingdoms that were ruled by the Manikongo. In Europe, absolute monarchs held power over provinces. In North America, on the other hand, chiefdoms became more prevalent during the Mississippi tradition. Chiefdoms are characterized by hereditary rule and people are ranked according to the family they belong to. Alternatively, North America also had tribal societies that were governed by consensus and tribal councils during the Woodland
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Show MoreThere are five noteworthy religions throughout the world, the most recent of these is Islam. Islam is a religion that spread rapidly from the Middle East into Asia, Africa, and Europe. Despite the fact that there are many reasons that Islam spread quickly, there are three principle reasons. First, the many trade routes that went through Islam's holiest cities. Next, Islam was an extremely engaging religion to others.
belief in supreme Creator, honored spiritual forces of nature & ancestors 3. Shared religious feeling with slave owners → African Christianity a. older religious customs lost some power 4. Similar hierarchy as Europeans (common people lived beneath rulers & nobles) III. Europe on the Eve of Invading the Americas A. The Rebirth of Europe 1.
Also, the Turkic Speaking people became exposed to the new religion, and adopted Islam, they quickly became the third- largest group of people to spread Islam. Conquest allowed for new people to be exposed to new religions and ideas thus allowing for the
Now most of the European countries rule their government from all the way in Africa. This way European countries or nations rule through a system called “direct rule”. Mostly used by
In Africa during the Post-Classical era, 600-1450 CE, the Saharan was no longer a barren wasteland hardly suitable for travel, but, an essential part of both North African and Sub-Saharan West African societies. Camels and caravans allowed for quicker and more effective traveling. With trading becoming increasingly popular in this area, it provided the resources to build new and larger political structures. During this era, Africa’s economy began to change and the western part of Sub-Saharan was no different. With the Trans-Saharan trade routes ability to increase with the help of wealthier Islamic states, it allowed for the spread of religious and political ideas such as larger empires and the Islamic faith in which both greatly influenced
The Out of Africa Theory What proofs are there supporting the out of Africa Theory? The origin of modern humans, Homo sapiens, is a very fervently debated issue in palaeontology and anthropology. Most palaeoanthropologists agree that hominins first evolved in Africa, but disagree on where Homo sapiens emerged. There are two theories regarding the origins of modern humans: they emerged in one place – Africa; or hominins spread out of Africa and became modern humans in other parts of the world.
Islam was welcomed into areas under these empires because people didn 't like the oppressive rule. In conclusion, trade, conquest and choice are reasons Islam spread so
The Middle East is a place that was the birthplace for many cultures and religions such as Christianity and Islam. As they expanded from this region, both of these religions had good impact on history. However, Christianity and Islam have their similarities in religious beliefs and their differences in expansion between the two religions. Within the time period c. 600 CE to 1250 CE and 1st century to 1000 CE Islam and Christianity began to spread around the world. The two religions spread socially and economically similar but politically different.
As the Christian side of Europe began to separate from Islam, it came across a lot of what the Arabic scholars had learned over the years. They wasted no time in acquiring and translating this knowledge (Principe 6). Many European scholars embarked
11/5/2015 Compare and Contrast Christendom with Muslim Civilization Around 625 AD, two civilizations arose, the Christianity based region of Christendom and the Muslim Civilization. These civilizations lasted till around AD 1200. The region of Christendom are also referred to as the “Dark Ages”, whereas the Muslim Civilization outshone Christendom, and were referred to as the Golden Ages. There were a few similarities between these two civilizations. but it was the contrasts between these two regions that helped the Muslim Civilization become the “Golden Ages”.
The primary difference in the political organization of both East and West African from 1000-1500 CE comes in the form of government. While all sub-Saharan Africa utilized kin-based groups, West Africa was structured more around kingdoms, and East Africa structured around city-states. Some West African kingdoms had a strong centralized government, such as the Kingdom of Kongo. The government included a king, who controlled military, judicial, and financial affairs, with the help of his officials. When the emergence of formal states came about, the strong kin-based societies of the West survived for centuries later.
Christianity and Islam are the two largest religions in the world, with 2.1 Billion and 1.3 Billion followers respectively. Each had their own rise, golden age, and eventual large-scale split. However, each religion spread in different regions of the world in different ways and developed their own traditions and structures. Christianity and Islam have similarities such as a large-scale split and a history of spreading through popular trade routes, while simultaneously having many differences such as where the two religions spread, the methods in which they spread, and the structure of their religious leaderships. One of the primary differences between the spread of Islam and Christianity is the directions in which they spread.
According to scientists the African climate became drier around 4,000 BC. Around the six and seven hundreds the Arab tribes invaded Northern Africa in hopes to convert the people to Islam (the religion of the Muslims). The Arab tribes succeeded in converting the Africa people to Islam. Approximately four to three hundred years after they invaded Northern Africa the Arabs had spread Islam all the way to the Southern border of the Sahara. The Arab tribe’s language later on became the main language of Sahara.
Traditional Christianity as an African Religion There are so many religions in the world like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, African Religion and so many more. Although in Africa, the most respected and popular religion is Christianity and Islam, which is made up of majority of Africans. Traditional Christianity as an African Religion is an article written by Calvin Rieber and can be found on the pages 255-273 using the book, “African Religions: A Symposium, published in 1977 by Newell S Booth in writing this report. Christianity began after the death of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem. There was a relationship between Jerusalem and Northern Africa and because of this relationship, Christianity was introduced in Ethiopia, Egypt and the Northern
The Christian communities in North Africa were among the earliest in the world. Once in North Africa, Christianity began to spread constantly West from Alexandria and East to Ethiopia. For the past fifty years the churches in Africa have been growing