During medieval times, multiple changes occurred. Most of which were extremely influential moments in history. These changes would be some of which affected and influenced the modern world. The movement of people and religions such as Christianity and Islam underwent numerous changes. It is definite that most, if not all of these changes have influenced and affected the modern world that we know today.
One of the biggest changes that impacted the world during the middle ages, was the spreading of Christianity. By the time the early middle ages had come to an end, nearly all of Europe was Christian or under Christian rule. The first major spreading of Christianity came when the Roman empire declared its state religion had come to be Christianity. When the Roman empires days were over and it began to collapse, the religion had already moved into the African countries of Sudan (then known as Nubia) and Ethiopia. Although the middle east was to be taken over by the rule of the Islamic Religion, Christianity was still able to inhabit and become the known religion across nearly all of Europe. When the Roman empire was taken over by various Germanic kingdoms, they were all to be Christian converts. Meanwhile the population in which lived in Ireland changed to Christianity during the fifth century and Britain had Christianity brought to it during the Roman occupation. Although this is just a few of the example where Christianity was spread, it is clear that it only grew as a religion over time and it definitely grew the biggest during the middle ages. The religion definitely would not be where it is today if this major spreading hadn’t occurred during this time period.
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Although Europe saw the spread of Christianity, the middle eastern countries of the world were being influenced by a different religion, the religion of Islam. The first time Islam was ever founded was in the country of Arabia, it was founded by a prophet with the name Muhammed. When Muhammed eventually met his death (632 AD), every Arabian tribe was following the Islamic religion and in the time frame of a little bit over 100 years, the followers of Islam (Muslims) had managed to conquer parts of Africa, various kingdoms in Asia and even small portions of south-western Europe. Over time though, the religion managed to spread even further, just a few of the countries it came to conquer being Palestine, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, most of Spain, and even central Asia; right up to the Chinese borders. They were able to overthrow the Persian empire of Sassanian and even took Egypt from the hands of the Byzantine empire. The Islamic religion being equally as powerful as the Christian religion, it influenced the middle east so heavily that the world would surely be extremely different if these peoples hadn’t taken over as frequently as they did.
The practice of migration, conquering, overpowering and the movements of groups of people is a major factor of history. Many countries in which we know of would not be the same or wouldn’t even be as developed as they are now if it weren’t for a tribe taking over a few hundred years ago, or city being burned down by a rival kingdom. The biggest time period in which the most changes occurred due to civilisations continually moving around, settling new lands and taking over already settled colonies was the middle ages. In China, the Han dynasty was overthrown in 220 CE, which set the whole country back quite far, as the Han dynasty had brought with it an immensely rich empire in which would even trade with Persia and Rome. Invasions from the Mongolian Nomads, Turkish and wars between separate Chinese states meant it was another 360 years before China was placed back in balance by the beginning of the Sui dynasty. Then in India, Prince Chandragupta founded the Gupta Empire in 320 CE, and his offspring would eventually move on to colonise an entire empire in which filled most of Northern India. Although this was one of the greatest feats the world had seen at the time, his country was ravaged by the White Huns, who were known to be able to slaughter whole populations. During the three centuries in which followed 180 CE, the power in which Rome once had began to fizzle out, as barbarians moved into its colonies. And 296 years later (476 CE), a man by the name of Odoacer who was a German chieftain dethroned the very last Roman emperor. This even is more than often used by historians as a marker, the moment in which began the Middle ages and saw the close of the Ancient world. Throughout many repeated attacks there were two civilisations in which were able to remain sturdily. The Byzantine (Persian empire – Europe) and the Sassanian (Persia). The smaller colonies in which resided in the Western Roman empire all deemed themselves to be Roman and lived under the authority of the Eastern Roman emperor; and for hundreds of years the Byzantine empire was the only thing keeping Roman traditions and culture alive. Although, when these two colonies were nearing their end, they ended up becoming feeble and fragile due to wars in which they were battling against each other. Byzantine was eventually taken out by Turks in 1453 CE, whereas Persia didn’t last so long; being overrun by Muslims in 651 CE. All of these wars, changes, colonisations and conquering’s have given us the culture and homes in which we have today. If even one of these wars didn’t take place, we could be living in completely different countries to the ones we do now, calling different lands home and having neighbouring countries being different as well. The current government could be different as well, presidents and prime ministers could not have existed, and we still could be living under the rule of a king or emperor. The movements of people during the middle ages has definitely given us all of the countries and states we know of today.
Christianity wouldn’t be where it is if the Romans hadn’t fully converted their entire empire to the religion. Islam wouldn’t be as big a religion as it is if it didn’t spread so widely over so little amount of time hundreds of years ago. The movement of people during the middle ages has so heavily affected the places we now reside and live in, as people and as whole cities and countries. It is sure that every small change in which occurred during the middle ages did affect the modern world and will still continue to affect the modern world every single day.
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