Western Christendom’s face was the Byzantine Empire. It was the eastern half of the Roman Empire that still remained. Byzantine was based at Constantinople, which is modern day Istanbul, Turkey. The empire was in a war against the Muslim people of the Middle East. The Byzantines were in existence for over 1,000 years, and their empire ended because of the Ottomans. The Byzantines had one of the finest navies of the time, and they were able to repulse the Muslim’s from gaining ground and breaking through their massive walls. This would not last forever though, as the Ottoman Empire united the Muslim people and were able to make a full out attack. The city finally fell in the mid 1400’s, and the Roman Empire fell with it. It was a severe defeat for Christianity and they would repay the Muslims at the Battle of Lepanto. This battle helped to stop the spread of Islam across Europe, and gave people a choice of which religion was right for them. This holds true to what the United States of America was founded upon, and what we still believe today.
Defeat of Islam in Europe gave people a choice of religion? Late medieval Europe was never as religiously tolerant as the muslims were. Case in point: Islamic Spain where Christians Jews and Muslims thrived together The United States owes NONE of its freedoms to the halt of Islam in Europe.
ReplyDeleteHistory for Dummies indeed - and is it so hard to remember or look up 1453 as the fall of Constantinople? "The mid 1400’s" is needlessly vague.
History for dummies indeed. History should not be a platform for your factually inaccurate political agenda. You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts, and yes there is a difference.
Nice map though.
Got to agree with Dave ...he expresses my thoughts exactly..this is shamefully elementary....and definitely agree there is some agenda going on here that doesn't have much to do with actual historical facts. Scarey dumb down..History for dummies indeed. AND - the best map :) annette
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that this is a very, very basic look at Byzantium and the history of the region, I have to disagree on the point that the halt of Islam did not effect the current state of religious freedom today. While, yes, most of medieval Europe was less tolerant that noted Islamic nations of the day, modern Europe and America are much more tolerant than many predominantly Islamic countries. These Muslim nations are relatively no more or less tolerant than they were in the Middle Ages, which is due in part- in my opinion a large part- to the tenets of their faith. I do not say this as someone pushing an agenda or a bigot against Muslims, as I have great respect for Islam, but it is a religion which stresses obedience to the literal and unchangeable Word of the Prophet, which blossomed into relatively tolerant societies in the first parts of its existence and withered into relatively intolerant societies in the second.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I think it is important to note that many important occurrences in the chain of events which has led to modern religious freedom and tolerance have their roots in the Renaissance, an event which was, to some extent, ushered in by scholars fleeing the dying Byzantine Empire in the 15th century bearing classical texts and humanist ideals, and also an event which may very well have not taken place had the early Islamic tidal wave not broken on the walls of Constantinople in 678 & 718.
I also acknowledge that my summary here is woefully inadequate, and hope that someone out there has some counter-points so that the opposing view can be fully accessible.
Though it's admirable to discourage discrimination in the West against Muslims, it's a bit of a knee jerk reaction to say that the US doesn't owe its religious freedom to the halt of Islam in Europe. While it may be true that at the time, many countries were more intolerant than the Muslim countries of the day, Western Europe's development has outpaced Islamic countries on the issue of religious freedom.
ReplyDeleteAlso, let's not idealize Islam's tolerance. Zoroastrianism, for instance, was a major religion into the Middle Ages that was actively targetted by Muslims for elimination. Let's remember that the goal of the Islam empires from the Arab caliphates to the Ottoman Empire was not to create a universal empire that respected all religions, but to create a universal empire of the right religion, Islam, with discrimanatory laws to encourage conquered people to adopt the right religion. For instance, the caliphates encouraged conversion by eliminating taxes on Muslims, but taxing Christians and Jews. Al Ghazali wrote that tax collectors were even encouraged to grab non-Muslims by the beard and slap them across the cheeks when collecting taxes.
Just an aside, I do hesitate at identifying the Byzantine Empire with Western Europe. If anything, it's more closely related to Eastern Europe--having its own Christian church headed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and having a much different culture and level of development than pre-Rennaisance Western Europe. Also, "Byzantines" weren't a separate people -- they identified as Romans, and many additionally identified as Greeks, Slavs, Jews, Armenians, and other Eastern Mediterranean peoples.