Casey's World History Blog

Christianity had begun to spread during this time. Even today, there is a large number of Asian countries that have a large Christian following. Even in Africa Christianity had spread. Latin America still is mainly Catholic. In the Byzantine Empire church and state were one, unlike others like the Romans, the Catholic church was still separate from politics. The Byzantine people were expected to be apart of the Orthodox church. The church had helped the government in some of their decision making process as one unit and not separate. Russia slowly converted to Orthodox Christianity. This was a direct reflection of the diverse cultures in that area of Finnic, Baltic and Viking traders. There was also people of Christianity, Muslim, and Jewish, in small numbers throughout the area. The Prince didn't like the diversity and changed to Eastern Orthodox, from the Byzantine Empire. With religions trying to compete for unity among the citizens and getting rid of other religions in their

Islam has a huge population throughout the world today. Mainly in the areas of the Middle East today. Afro-Asia was where it primarily began. Arabia was fighting with themselves for land and trade. Mecca was one of the most religious cities but also largely used for trade. The Byzantine Empire and the Persian Empires were the largest. The new religion that began was that of Islam who focuses on Mohammad and used the Quran as their "bible" that was written in Arabic. The purpose of the religion were to create a revolutionary message of monotheism. These empires were interested in long distance trade routes. The people were separated by class systems  and were limited by those social classes to their trade routes. Dar al-Islam was a new civilization that allowed for more opportunity to education. Growing in networks based on their religious similarities allowed them to learn more about their own cultures and values that were shared among a large population. This network h

The trade route began with the what is known as the Silk Road that was between Eurasia. Goods from each civilization were being traded between groups. Things that were not available in other areas were now being used as goods to be traded for other items. The name comes from China who had silk to trade. However, goods were not the only things being traded. Contact with other people left illnesses and diseases behind like smallpox and measles. The bubonic plague or black death was also traveling along the Silk Road. Boats would come to the areas closer to the water to exchange goods along the Silk Road also. But they too were getting the sicknesses that were spreading. While this was a great way to create peace among the other groups, it was exposing them to things they were not used to. Cultures, economic, politics and religious values were also being exchanged. Seeing how other civilizations or cultures were living their lives in their societies gave birth to new religions, political

The populations at this time were spread out unevenly. According to our textbook, Eurasia contained about 85% of the world's population. The civilizations in Africa had many civilizations and societies like Eurasia. Their biggest challenge would be the weather. With drastic changes form the deserts to open fields and rain forests the environment was the peoples biggest adjustment. Some of the civilization shad contact with each other while others did not.The Nubian civilization evolved into the Axum which was based on Christianity. Axum was made from what we know as today's Eritrea and northern Ethiopia. They were most known for their successful agriculture of wheat, barley and millet. The royal authority in charge decided that Christianity was to be the religion of the civilization. Most of the civilization were adding more religious aspects into their daily lives. The Chavin also used the Pan-Andean religion. Religion became more popular because it was designed to protect peo

In China, the state officials were only males. There was other classes known as the landlord class, peasant and merchants. The landlords were wealthy families who owned land. Peasants were what most people were categorized as because the were living in small homes with 2-3 generations of family. They may own small parts of land and maybe enough to sell in the market but went through great struggles that were imposed onto them from taxes, fees and other from the government. Merchants were unproductive and were known for selling products of others'. In India, the caste system was very important. There were 5  classes, or varnas. Brahmins were priest and teachers. Kshatriyas were warriors or rulers. Vaisya were farmers, merchants, or artisans. Sudras were laborers. The untouchables were polluted laborers. The Roman Empire was known for its use of slaves. The Greeks, Chinese, Indians and Romans all used slaves. The slvaes were usually criminals or those being punished. Slave owners

Now that these dynasties were becoming more established, they were also creating morals and values that almost everyone followed. These turned into parts of their culture and religion. It can be seen in China during the time of 500 B.C.E. Confucianism, from the teachings of Confucius,  and Daoism were rising. In the Middle East it was Zoroastrianism from the Persian prophet Zarathustra. Later it was known as Hinduism which later also branched off to Buddhism. Judaism became the religion of Israel and later spread to the branch of Christianity and Islam. In Greece, they still looked to the writings of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and others for rational reasoning and expressions. (Strayer, 2016). Many of these groups of civilizations were looking for a way to connect to a higher power spiritually, spreading the need for religion. People wanted to look up to something for guidance and direction. To be able to follow the teaching and values set in place by the religion. Religion began to