His teachings and those of subsequent gurus also generally ignored caste distinctions and untouchability and ended the seclusion of women, while proclaiming the “brotherhood of all mankind” as well as the essential equality of men and women.
This stood out to me because it is the first place I have read where they are saying women have the same equal chances as men in this religion.
The decisive conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires and all that followed from it — disease, population collapse, loss of land to Europeans, forced labor, resettlement — created a setting in which the religion of the victors took hold in Spanish American colonies.
This id interesting to me because the last chapter spoke about how the Europeans brought over diseases and wiped out civilizations and had majority control.
Christianity motivated European political and economic expansion and also benefited from it.
I find it interesting that though all of these other religions were growing and expanding, Christianity seems to be the one that motivated and influenced most of everything.
Although large numbers of women were attracted to Protestantism, Reformation teachings and practices did not offer them a substantially greater role in the Church or society. Protestant opposition to celibacy and monastic life closed the convents, which had offered some women an alternative to marriage. Nor were Protestants (except the Quakers) any more willing than Catholics to offer women an official role within their churches.
why were the convents closed and where did the women who were living in them end up? We they allowed to break their oath and get married or were they to abide by the rules even when they had no place to be?