Reformation thinking spread quickly both within and beyond Germany, thanks in large measure to the recent invention of the printing press.
The printing press was a big factor in the split of the church. I think that without it, the Catholic Church may have been able to fight back quicker against the ideas presented by Martin Luther.
They derived from various West African traditions and featured drumming, ritual dancing, animal sacrifice, and spirit possession. Over time, they incorporated Christian beliefs and practices such as church attendance, the search for salvation, and the use of candles and crucifixes and often identified their various spirits or deities with Catholic saints.
I find it very interesting how they were able to incorporate Christianity into ancient traditions that they had been practicing for generations. It must have been challenging for them to make such a drastic transition.
In short, it was a more highly fragmented but also a renewed and revitalized Christianity that established itself around the world in the several centuries after 1500 (see Map 15.2).
I think it is very interesting to see all the different forms of Christianity across the world. They all worshiped the same God just a different way.
The long-term significance of this new Qing imperial state was tremendous. It greatly expanded the territory of China and added a small but important minority of non-Chinese people to the empire’s vast population (see Map 13.3).
I am not too familiar with a lot on China in this time period. I would love to learn a little more on it so I can be more prepared.
To those colonial societies, Europeans and Africans brought not only their germs and their people but also their plants and animals. Wheat, rice, sugarcane, grapes, and many garden vegetables and fruits, as well as numerous weeds, took hold in the Americas, where they transformed the landscape and made possible a recognizably European diet and way of life
I think that it is interesting to see how the diet has changed when the European people were introduced to the new world. As they settled the shift in not only diet but the way of life drastically changed as well.
Therefore, when Native American peoples came into contact with these European and African diseases, they died in appalling numbers, in many cases losing up to 90 percent of the population. The densely settled peoples of Caribbean islands virtually vanished within fifty years of Columbus’s arrival. Central Mexico, with a population estimated at some 10 to 20 million before the Spanish conquest, declined to about 1 million by 1650
Truly awful to think about. When you think about the impact this had for historians in the future trying to study the different cultures of the area.
Geography provides a starting point for explaining Europe’s American empires. Countries on the Atlantic rim of Europe (Portugal, Spain, Britain, and France) were simply closer to the Americas than were any potential Asian competitors.
I think it is important to know that countries in Asia never really had any importante in going east. All they needed was located around them. Plus Asian countries did not haveboats that were sutible for long distance travel that would have been required to cross the Pacific.