Holy Wars, Renaissance and World Conquests

Contents

• Wars of Races and Religions
• Germanic Tribes
• Holy Roman Empire
• Holy Wars and Inquisition
• Muslim-Turkish Empires
• Reformation & Protestantism
• Renaissance & Downfall of Christian Empires
• Plight of the Jews
• The New World
• Reflection: Religions & New Nations

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War of Races and Religions

This chapter provided a snapshot of how the war of religious and racial empires held the world hostage, from the rise of Islam until the early 1900s.[1] During his reign, Emperor Theodosius (379-395) divided the Roman Empire into east and west, but the seat of the Church remained in Constantinople. Then, Pope Leo I (440-461) initiated the breakaway of the Church from the East Roman Empire (Byzantium) and transferred to Rome. When the Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD, the Byzantium Empire rose as the Second Roman Empire, along with the schism between the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy in 484-518. [2] In 533, Emperor Justinian I (527-565 AD) declared the Bishop of Rome as “head of all the holy churches and of all the holy priests of God.” When Islam arose in 610 AD, it goaded the rise of the Germanic Holy Roman Empire and the “Holy Wars.” According to Julian Johnson, “the war awakened the slumbering mentality and quickens the circulation in the rheumatic limbs of an aging morality. At that time, Europe was in mental stupor. It had entered the dark ages, marked by the low tide of intellectual activity and spirituality. Islam became the stimulant which brought the Renaissance.” [3] The Renaissance also led to “New Worlds” that later became new world leaders, such as the US, Canada and Australia. The empires soon fell and new nations emerged. But the religions spread; they divided rather than unified mankind.

Germanic Tribes

In 1000 BC, aggressive Indo-European tribes left the shores of the northern Baltic seas and settled in what became Germany. The Romans called them Germani, although it is only the name of one tribe. From 200-600 AD, new Germanic tribes from beyond the Rhine and Danube rivers attacked the centers of European civilization and the defenses of the Roman Empire. [4]They included the Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Franks and Saxons.

The Goths migrated from southern Scandinavia (Sweden) before Christ. Those who settled along the Danube (Hungarian Plains) and raided the Balkans were called Visogoths (West Goths). In the 4th century, they coexisted peacefully with the Romans and adopted Arianism. In 378, they defeated the Roman army and killed the emperor. In 410 AD, under Alaric I, they controlled Rome and expanded to Spain. In 589 AD, they became orthodox Christians and tried to unite Spain. However, social, political, religious differences in Spain led to frequent civil wars. Those who settled north of the Black Sea (modern Ukraine) were called Ostrogoths (East Goths). Conquered by the Huns (c. 370), they moved west, led by Theodoric the Great, who became king of Italy (493-526). His daughter-successor, Amalasuntha was murdered by her husband co-ruler. Her allies, the Byzantines, and later, the Lombards took control of Italy.[5]

The Vandals lived in the area of the Tizza River (eastern Hungary) by the 4th century. As the Huns moved west, the Vandals crossed the Rhine in 406 and ravaged the Roman territories in Gaul. In 409, they invaded Spain; but, after defeats from the Visogoths, they moved south to Andalucia. In 429, they invaded North Africa. Under Gaiseric (who ruled until 477), they controlled the Mediterranean, then Rome in 455. In North Africa, the Vandals who were Arian Christians persecuted orthodox Christians. In 533, the Byzantines invaded North Africa and destroyed the Vandal kingdom.[6]

From their home in the lower Elbe River, the Lombards moved southwest in the 4th century. By the 6th century, they converted to Arian Christianity. In 547, the Emperor Justinian I gave them land in Pannonia and Noricum (modern Hungary and Eastern Austria). In 568, under King Alboin, the Lombards invaded Italy, and by 572, they held the north as well as part of the south. During the 7th century and much of the 8th century, they strengthened their hold on Italy and fought off the Franks, the Byzantines and other coalitions sent by the popes. Under Liutprand (712-44), who accepted Roman Christianity, the Lombards made notable changes in the law and administration. [7]

By mid-3rd century, the Frank settlers along the Rhine frontier penetrated Roman territories around Mainz. They soon became Roman allies. The Merovingians (after their chieftain Merowech) extended south, conquered most of Gaul and established the Merovingian dynasty. After the Hun invasion before the 6th century, another tribe started the Carolingian dynasty. In 754-56, Pope Stephen allied with Carolingian King Pepin the Short, who forced the Lombards to return a sizable territory, which he donated to the papacy as “papal states.” In 773-4 Carolingian Charlemagne (768-814) defeated the Lombards; the Franks assumed the kingship. The Carolingians formed an empire, divided in the mid-9th century into the West kingdom (France) and the East kingdom (Germany). [8] Germanic Angles, Saxons and Jules also migrated to England. Gradually, the Anglo-Saxon language developed as a mix of German tongues with English traits spoken in Central Europe. When the Carolingian empire dissolved, the first two Saxon kings of Germany, Henry I and his son Otto I asserted the strength of a centralized monarchy.[9]

Holy Roman Empire

In 800 AD, Pope Leo III crowned Frankish King Charles (Charlemagne), reviving the emperorship in Rome. In 962 AD, Pope John XII crowned Otto I as emperor; the pope was considered the “spiritual head” and the emperor as “temporal head.” [10] The Holy Roman Empire emerged as “the medieval state that embraced most of central Europe….under the rule of German kings from 962 to 1806. Although considered a continuation of the ancient Roman Empire, it had little in common with its predecessors.” It reflected “the unity of…Christians as the civil counterpart to the…Holy Catholic Church; and a concept of hierarchical political organization that called for one emperor over the existing states.” [11]Thence, the Holy Roman Empire ruled Western Europe; the Byzantium reigned in the East; and Islamic states from the Middle East.

During the Age of Emperors (926-1250 AD), the Catholic Church was considered as an extension of the Holy Roman Empire, under strong Germanic emperors of Saxon, Franconian and Hohenstaufen (Germanic State of Prussia) dynasties. In the “Investiture Controversy,” Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) attacked the practices whereby the emperor controlled appointments. With the first Crusade, Urban II (1088-99) succeeded in independence for the Church. During the Age of Princes (1250-1438), Emperor Charles IV issued a Golden Bull (1356) mandating that the emperorship be elected by state kings, rather than by hereditary rights. In the “Babylonian captivity” (1309-78), popes were French; Pope Clement V transferred to Avignon. The “great schisms” (1378-1418) occurred when two and later three rival claimants disputed the papacy - Urban IV in Rome and Clement VII in Avignon. In the Hapsburg Period (1438-1648), only a member of the Germanic Hapsburg Dynasty of Austria was chosen as emperor.

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Table 1 - Highlights: Holy Roman Empire, Byzantine (Orthodoxy) & Protestantism

501-1000 – Rise of Holy Roman Empire in Western Europe

• 533 - Emperor Justinian I (527-565 AD) declared Bishop of Rome as “head of all the holy churches & of all the holy priests of God” (later called pope). Those opposed became Eastern Orthodoxy.
• 610 - 1081 - Middle Period of Byzantine Empire; Rise of Islam
• 800 - Leo III crowned the Frankish King Charles (Charlemagne) and revived the emperorship in Rome.
• 962 - Pope John XII crowned Otto I as emperor of “Roman Empire.” (“Holy” was affixed by Emperor Frederick I in 1122 to reflect the mystical link between him and the destiny of Christianity)

1001-1500 – Separation of Church & State; Fall of Byzantium Empire; Reformation & Renaissance

• 962 - 1250 - the Age of Emperors, the Holy Roman Empire dominated by strong Germanic emperors
• 1073 - 85 - “Investiture Controversy;” Pope Gregory VII hit the emperor’s control of appointments
• 1088 - 99 - Pope Urban II gains independence for the Church with the first Crusade
• 1095 - 1291 - Crusade years
• 1209 - Birth of Inquisition during the Crusade against the heretic Cathars in southern France
• 1250 - 1438 – Age of Princes, enhanced powers of the papacy with minimal authority of the emperor
• 1453 - Byzantium Empire fell to the Seljuk Turks; rise of the Islamic Ottoman Empire
• 1300 - 1650 - Age of Reformation and Renaissance; rise of Protestantism and nation-states
• 1492 - Columbus “discovered” America, the “New World”

1501-1900 – Fall of Holy Roman Empire; Colonization and World Expansion

• 1521 - Magellan circumnavigated the world; it opened the door of the world to western influence.
• 1500 - 1900 - Period of colonialism in Central and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia
• 1648 - 1806 - Final Phase of the Holy Roman Empire
• 1806 - Austrian King Francis II abdicated as emperor and declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved.
• 800 - 1900 - rise of US, Canada and Australia as world powers
• 1900 - 1922 - Fall of Ottoman Empire; Middle East Islamic countries became European mandates
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The papacy provided enormous power both for the pope and his country. It was marred by rivalries among popes and their states. The Church, as history had proven, was not a divine mandate established for the “salvation of souls.” It was designed to control peoples and territories for the promotion of an “earthly kingdom,” whose legitimacy from Jesus Christ was questionable. [12] According to Dr. Loraine Boettner: “after the 4th century, when the Roman Empire had fallen, the bishops of Rome stepped into Caesar’s shoes, took his pagan title of Pontifex Maximus, the supreme high priest of the pagan Roman religion…and that role they have continued ever since.” [13]

Holy Wars and Inquisition

When Christianity became the state religion, Jerusalem became the center of Christian pilgrimage, with the church of the Holy Sepulcher erected and overseen by Byzantines. In 638, the Muslims controlled Jerusalem and erected the Dome of the Rock mosque on the temple site. Under the Muslims, religious toleration prospered for 3.5 centuries, until 996. In 1055, the Christian pilgrimage was cut off when Seljuks Turks established a Middle Eastern-Anatolian empire; in 1071, they seized Jerusalem.

In 1095, Pope Urban II (1088-99), responded to the Byzantine call for help; he launched the First Crusade to force Muslims out of the Holy Land. Thousands enlisted for the promised religious blessings, fiefdom and spoils. On their way, the crusaders massacred Rhineland Jews; in 1099, they overtook Jerusalem and established the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The 2nd Crusade (1147-49) took back Lisbon, Spain. In 1169, Saladin (1138-93), Muslim ruler of Egypt, launched his own jihad, “holy war.” He regained Jerusalem in 1187, defeated the 3rd Crusade (1188-92), and forced the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem to retreat to the Palestine city of Acre. The 4th Crusade (1204) crushed the Byzantines and installed the Latin Kingdom of Constantinople (1204-1261). [14] In 1261, exiles in Nicaea retook Constantinople and reinstated the Byzantine Empire.

In 1208, Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) called for a Crusade against a heretical Cathar sect (or Albigensian, from the city of Albi) in the south of France. Catharism traced its roots from the Gnostics and the Manicheans (Mani of Persia, c. 276 AD), who believed that good and evil had equal powers. From the wars (1209-1229), rose the Inquisition, the inhuman machinery which sought to stamp out all types of heresy through tortures. It generated a fearful climate of oppression in Europe for the next 600 years. Hearsay, innuendo and honest intellectual disagreements led many to death by burning. [15]

The 6th Crusade (1228-29) involved the forging of peace. In 1228, Frederick II, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (r. 1220-50) and king of Italy and Germany, was sentenced for excommunication by Pope Honorius III (1216-27) as a heretic and anti-Christ. On the other hand, he exiled Honorius to Lyons for coveting to be king of Italy. While under sentence, Frederick II negotiated peace with Muslim leader, Sultan Kamil. Without papal approval, a 1229 treaty gave Jerusalem back to the Christians for 10 years, provided Christians do not arm themselves. With appeal to reason, Frederick II achieved what popes failed to do with warfare. However, Gregory IX (1227-41) excommunicated him for heresy; Innocent IV (1243-54) also induced the Council of Lyons to depose him. Nonetheless, after the truce (1239), war resumed; in 1244, Jerusalem fell to the Muslims.

Emir Baybars “the Panther,” leader of the Mameluks (Turkish slave-soldiers) crushed the Mongolian invasion and 7th Crusade (1248-54), including crusader forts in Palestine. He became Sultan of Egypt (1268-1291); in 1291, his successor al-Ashraf Khalil captured Acre, ending the crusades. What sustained the wars? William Bramley opined that Christians and Muslims believed that fighting and dying for their faith guaranteed eternal salvation. The Holy Wars also increased the pope’s power, with states proclaiming papal loyalty.[16] History showed that the drive for salvation can override the urge for self-preservation. When spiritual knowledge is distorted, while the desire for spiritual salvation continued to be stirred, people could be led to doing “stupid things”[17]

Muslim-Turkish Empires

Like the Germanic tribes carried the Holy Roman Empire, Turkish tribes carried Islam to its greatest heights. Before the 4th century, the Turks settled in the grasslands from the Altai Mountains (of Mongolia) to the Caspian (Turkestan). In the 10th century, driven out by the Mongol (Tatar) conquerors, they migrated to India and the Middle East. The Turks were essentially Buddhists. However, Arab Muslims invaded and conquered part of Turkestan; gradually, the Turks (like the Mongols) were converted to Islam.[18]

Seljuk Turks from Turkestan entered Anatolia in the 11th century as mercenary Muslim soldiers. Before the 14th century, Osman I (1290-1326) asserted independence in northwestern Anatolia, starting the Ottoman Empire.[19] Under Sultan Murad II (1421-44), the empire developed the devshirme system of recruiting young Christians for conversion to Islam and service in the Ottoman army and administration. The Christians in the army were organized into the Janissaries, the elite infantry corps. In 1453, Mehmed II (1444-46; 1451-81) led the Ottoman conquest of the Byzantium Empire. [20] Within a century, the Sunni Ottoman Empire stretched from the Danube in Eastern Europe to the Euphrates in Iraq. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-66), the empire had stretched to Hungary and Albania in Europe; and, Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Iraq in the Middle East.

Turkish warriors from Azerbaijan, a mountainous region west of the Caspian Sea, started the Shi’ite Safavid Empire in Persia (Iran). Before the empire, Persia was divided among states of tribal groups. In Azerbaijan, several Turkish tribes banded as Safavids, after its founder, Safi al-Din. In 1501, Shah Isma’il arose as leader, believed as the savior in the footsteps of Huseyn, the Prophet’s grandson. The Safavids stirred up rebellions in Asia Minor (Turkey), primarily over religion (Sunnis versus Shi’ites), but were constantly repulsed. The Empire peaked under Shah Abbas I (r. 1588-1629); he encouraged manufacturing and trading. In 1605, he joined with the English to attack the Hormuz, the center of trade which the Portuguese controlled. After 1615, more English and Dutch merchants entered Iran. Among his achievements was Ishtafan, his capital; its center, the Maydan, was a 20-acre square surrounded by domed mosques. One of the greatest artistic works of the period is a beautiful illustrated calligraphy of the Persian epic Shahnama (Book of Kings). However, the four leaders after Shah Abbas were addicted to alcohol and people lost respect for the shah. The Ottomans took control of the empire’s western part. In 1722, Afghans captured Ishtafan and ended the empire.

Earlier, in the 10th century, Turkish warriors invaded Afghanistan and northern India (Pakistan), starting the Ghaznavid Empire. Mahmud the Conqueror (998-1038), its greatest ruler, built Ghazna (Afghanistan) as a center of Islamic learning and architecture. In 1206, Turkish general Qutb-ud-din established the Delhi Sultanate that ruled for more than 500 years; Islam peacefully reached Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Philippines.

Baber (r. 1526-1530), a descendant of Mongolian conqueror Genghis Khan, ended the Delhi dynasty, defeated an alliance of opposing Hindu princes, and established the Moghul Empire. (Moghul is Persian for Mongol; but the conquerors were mostly Turks and Afghans.) [21] His grandson, Akbar the Great (1542-1605), united India through religious tolerance (Hindu and Islam), a fair tax system and trade. Akbar’s grandson, Shah Jahan (d. 1658) built the famous Taj Mahal as tomb for his wife Mumtaz. Under the last emperor Aurangzeb (1658-1707) religious tolerance evaporated and the special tax for non-Muslims was reintroduced, causing rebellions and a divided India. In 1739, Persia invaded Delhi. In the 19th century, Britain conquered and united India.[22]

Reformation and Protestantism

In spite of the Inquisition, Europe in the 13th century began to recover from the socio-economic disruption of the Crusades. However, in 1347-1350, the bubonic plague (infected rodents) known as Black Death and pneumonia struck Europe, killing 25 million (one-third of Europe’s population). False accusations that Jews caused the plague by poisoning wells led to their genocide in Germany. Pope Clement VI (1342-52) had issued two papal bulls declaring the Jews innocent to stop the prosecutions, but did not dismantle the Inquisition.[23] In 1391, Jews were similarly massacre in Spain. The fearful climate was sustained, but the silent call for change was likewise brewed. The combination of plague, Inquisition and genocide led to the Reformation and Renaissance.

The Age of Reformation referred to the era of alienation from the Church, when priests and leaders questioned the authority and acts of the pope, which led to Protestant sects. As effort for control, the 1439 Council of Florence affirmed the “infallibility of the Pope.”[24] In 1534, Pope Paul III launched a Counter-Reformation to win back adherents to the Church. Also, the Council of Trent (1545-63) initiated reforms, which ushered Roman Catholicism to what it was until the mid-1920s.
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Table 2 – Major Events of the Reformation (14th – 19th Centuries)

1380-1415: John Wycliffe (1328-1384) made the first English translation of the Bible, considered heretical. By the Decree of the 1415 Council of Constance, forty years after his death, his bones were exhumed and publicly burned. His advocates, Bohemian John Russ and Jerome of Prague were likewise burned at the stakes.

1517-55: With the perceived corruption under Pope Leo X (1513-21), Martin Luther (1483-1546) asserted that salvation was obtained by the grace of God through faith and not through mediation of or indulgences awarded by priests. The wars that had divided Germany and the Holy Roman Empire ended in an agreement in the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, which provided that each German prince would determine the religious affiliation of his territory – Catholic or the protestant Lutheran Church.

1527-59: For a hundred years, Englishmen protested against the authority of the Pope and the heavy financial burden of supporting the Church. It climaxed in 1533 with the schism of the Church of England when Pope Clement VII earlier (in 1527) refused to annul the marriage of King Henry VIII (1491-1547) and Catherine of Aragon, so he can marry Ann Boleyn. Anglicanism was affirmed under Elizabeth I in 1559 (Episcopalian Church in the US), with the Archbishop of Canterbury as the head of the church.[25]

1618-48: The Thirty Years’ War was the last major European war of religion and the first all-European struggle for power. It started when a number of Protestant Bohemian noblemen threw two royal governors out of the windows of the royal Palace in Prague in protest against King Ferdinand II of Hapsburg (elected the Holy Roman Emperor). The war drew in the other kingdoms – Transylvania, Netherlands, England, Poland, Spain, Denmark, France and Sweden. The war grew to quest for control of territories outside Europe - the Caribbean, south Atlantic and Indian Ocean. The 1648 Peace of Westphalia, concluded after 5 years of negotiations, ended the war and effectively destroyed the Holy Roman Empire.

1645-1647: The Westminster Confession of Swiss Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) was the basis of the Presbyterian creed. Calvinists held that the scriptures are the only infallible rule of faith, but also adhered to the Trinity, heaven and hell.[26]

18th-19th Cs: There was increasing royal autonomy of national and local doctrines. For instance, Gallicanism (French), Febronianism (German), and Josephism (Austrian), limited papal prerogative and political interference.
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Renaissance and Downfall of Christian Empires

The Renaissance, “rebirth,” was an artistic and intellectual movement that began in Italy (1300-1500) and spread to Western Europe in 1500-1650. [27]The renewed interest in Greek and Roman achievements in science and government imbued Europe’s emerging powers with a new national consciousness and pride. It saw the birth of a modern Western Europe, with the growing strength of monarchies forging nation-states. As a result, feudal lords and landed aristocracies began to loose their powers and privileges. The Renaissance Period also prompted the discovery of new worlds, marked in 1492 with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America, and in 1521 with the circumnavigation of the world by the crew of Ferdinand Magellan.

Eastern Europe remained essentially the same until the 18th century. In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottomans; the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI died in battle. His niece, Zoe Paleologus ended in the care of Pope Paul II, who married her off to Ivan III (1462-1505), king of Muscovy. Ivan III styled himself as the first Tsar (Slavic for Caesar) and declared Moscow as the “Third Roman Empire” (after Rome and Byzantine). He became known as Ivan the Great and Zoe became Sophia.[28] Russia became the center of the “faith,” which was Christian Orthodoxy.[29] Russia was at that time under Mongol (Tatar) overlordship (1240-1480); nonetheless, Ivan III successfully challenged the Mongols by refusing to pay the tribute. The Renaissance influence reached Russia when Peter the Great (1682-1725), the first Russian monarch to journey beyond Russia, later reorganized Russia based on his insights from the West.

During its Final Phase (1648-1806) the Holy Roman Empire became merely a loose confederation of about 300 independent principalities and more than 1500 semi-sovereign bodies. In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte signed its death warrant with his refusal to recognize its existence following his victories in German territories. In 1806, Austrian King Francis II abdicated as emperor and declared the empire dissolved. After the Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna (1815) restored the Papal States, which, in 1870, were forcibly annexed to the kingdom of Italy. In 1829, the Lateran Treaty created the Vatican City as the permanent seat of the Roman Catholic Church.

In retrospect, despite the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 AD and of the Byzantium Empire in 1453, the Aryan (Greek and Roman) culture proliferated and was further highlighted during the Renaissance. Moreover, the civil confederacy under the Holy Roman Empire (the First Reich, German for empire) collapsed in 1806, but the Roman Catholic Church under the popes persisted. “Roman” and “Germanic” Christianity had spread throughout the world. Finally, the Renaissance ushered in the birth of new nations, along with the agricultural and industrial revolutions.

Plight of the Jews

What happened to the Jews? After the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD, thousands were sold to slavery and scattered in the western world. Thereafter, the Pharisaic leadership, Rabbi (my teacher), rallied the people to reconstruct religious and social life with the synagogue as the center of worship and education. The Sanhedrin was reconvened at Jabneh; with its head, called Patriarch, acknowledged by the Romans.

The Sanhedrin was also acknowledged as the authority by the Diaspora Jews (i.e., those who stayed in Babylon after the Babylonian captivity). However, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, the Babylonian Talmud, in contrast to the Palestinian tradition, became the standard legal work for Jews everywhere. Moreover, Babylonian Jews enjoyed peace and prosperity under Parthian and Sassanian rulers. This had not changed when Muslims conquered the Persian Empire. By the end of the 6th century, the heads of academies adopted the title of Gaon (Excellency). The next four centuries was known as the gaonic period, when Jewish communities turned to Babylonian Jewish leaders for help and understanding of the Talmud. In 770 AD, Karaites, biblical literalists who rejected the Talmud appeared in Babylonia; they prospered for centuries despite gaonic opposition.[30]

In Europe, the Jews were divided into two, the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim, based on geography, linguistic and cultural distinctions.[31] The Ashkenazim Jews settled in Rhineland (Germany) before the Roman Empire. (Ashkenaz was a grandson of Japheth in Genesis 10:3; medieval rabbis explained that Ashkenaz went to Germany after the deluge.) Their language was Yiddish, a mix of Middle German, Laaz, Slavic and Hebrew, written in Hebrew characters. During the first Crusade (1096-99) en-route for Constantinople, many Jews in the Rhine Valley were massacred under Peter the Hermit. During the bubonic plague (1347-51), many Jews, accused of poisoning wells, were also massacred. In the 17th century, a large number of eastern Jews settled in Western Europe. They constituted more than 80 percent of the world’s Jewish population at that time.

The Sephardims were Jews whose ancestors resided in the Iberian Peninsula. (Sepharad was a place of exile mentioned in Obadiah 20 and identified with Iberia.) Sephardims followed the Jewish liturgy and customs of medieval Spain and Portugal, derived from the Babylonian tradition. Their language was Ladino or Judeo-Spanish, a blend of medieval Castilian, Hebrew, Arabic and others. When the Visogoths ruled Spain in the second half of the 5th century, many Sephardims were slain and their communities were dispersed. At the start of the 8th century, the Arabs assumed control; they were tolerant and the Jews participated in the Muslim cultural renaissance.[32] But in the 12th century, when fanatical Muslim Almohads from North Africa ruled Spain, the Jews had to choose between Islam, death or flee. Most went to Northern Spain.

The second Crusade captured back Lisbon, Portugal (1147); King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella re-conquered Spain in 1492. The mutual tolerance under Muslim rule faded with the Catholic Inquisition. After their expulsion from Spain (1492) and Portugal (1497), many Sephardims settled in the Ottoman Empire lands of the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle East. Others stayed in Iberia, as nominal Christian converts and vilified as “Marranos” (“pigs”) subjected to continuing persecutions. In the 16th century, the Netherlands revolt against Spain led many Marranos to settle in Northwestern Europe (England and France). Amsterdam became an important center. Many also went to North Africa and the Middle East, carrying their Sephardic tradition.

In 1516, ghettos, walled enclosures locked at night and during Christian holidays, were set up in Venice (called Pale of Settlement in Russia). They became the general term for segregated Jewish communities. In the 18th century, Moses Mendelssohn pushed the improvement of the Jewish status; he urged the Jews to acquire secular education and actively participate in their national life. In 1791, the Jews acquired citizenship in France and in countries Napoleon conquered; the ghettos were abolished. They obtained equal rights in England, Germany, Austria and the United States. However, anti-Semitism arose in Russia and Germany, with regular pogroms (anti-Jewish riots) tolerated and sometimes instigated. Thousands of Jews migrated to Western Europe and the Americas.

The New World

While Islam expanded and the Jews sought a homeland, rival European countries increasingly assumed world dominance with much improved maritime technology and motivated by “God, gold and glory.”[33] When Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), a Genoese in Spain’s service, sailed west (Atlantic), he discovered San Salvador in the Bahamas (1492).[34] Thence, new colonies emerged, which may be classified into three. First, the settlers; they brought along their culture, religion and technology; and, pushed aside the natives. In this group were North America, Australia and New Zealand. The second, the colonial vassals; the conquerors ruled by extension, imposed their culture and religion on the natives, and extracted the wealth. In this group were colonies in Central and South America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The third is a mix, like in South Africa.

In 1513, Ponce de Leon, in search for the “fountain of youth,” reached Florida. In 1565, Menendez de Aviles founded St. Augustine (Miami, Florida) as the first permanent settlement (oldest US city). The early settlers in the US were migrants from England, Holland, France, Sweden, Scotland and Ireland. But English settlers spurred the growth; they settled purposely for a new life, escaping from the religious-political persecutions in England. In time, settlers increased and created a new breed of farmers, merchants, artisans, soldiers and intellectuals; they also displaced native Indians. They soon allied against British colonial rule. In 1775, they declared a revolution; in July 4, 1776, they declared independence, accepted by England in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The American civil war (1861-65) broke out between the south and north, primarily about slavery. In 1866, the 14th amendment to the Constitution provided equal rights for the emancipated Negro citizens. Americans also pushed westward and settled in “New Frontiers” until the west (Pacific) coast. By 1900, USA was industrialized and became a world power.

Canada had a parallel development with the United States. In 1497, John Calbot, an Italian navigator under the service of England discovered Newfoundland. Forty years later, he reached Montreal. In 1608, the first French settlement was established in Quebec and Acadia (Nova Scotia). After the Seven-Years War between France and England, France ceded to England all her territories in North America in the 1763 Treaty of Paris. After the American Revolution, Canadians also pushed westward. After two major uprisings, on July 1, 1867, the Canadian Nation was born.

Along the Australian coasts, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch people made their explorations during the 16th to 18th centuries. But it was with the journey of British James Cook (1728-1779) that Australia entered the European orbit.[35] In 1786, the southeastern part (New South Wales) was made a penal colony (as an alternative to America). Within two years, the first party of convicts arrived at what is now the Sydney port. In January 26, 1788, Arthur Philip raised the British flag in Sydney, celebrated as Australia Day. White settlements began; the aboriginal Austroloids were marginalized. Soon, Australia’s image as a penal colony faded. In 1901, the first Federal Parliament of Australia was convened in Melbourne. World War I pushed Australia’s greater economic independence (food processing, machinery, textile); it became a world leader. Australia’s island neighbor, New Zealand was discovered in 1642 by Dutch Abel Tasman and in 1769 by James Cook. Thereafter, migrations from the New South Wales commenced. In 1841, it became a separate colony under William Hobson (d. 1842). In 1846, the Auckland General Assembly secured its independence after several wars with the native Maoris.

Reflection: Religions and New Nations

Between the 15th and 19th century, European powers colonized most of the world. After Columbus, Spanish colonizers discovered what were now the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Cuba. Between 1513 and 1530, other discoveries in Middle and South America followed. In the 1900s, 20 republics gained independence from their colonial lords, but remained Christian - 18 from Spain, one (Brazil) from Portugal, and one (Haiti) from France.[36] In Asia and the Pacific, only Japan, China, Korea and Thailand were not colonized, but were beholden to western culture and technology. Britain gained Burma and Malaya. The French controlled Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia). Most of these countries retained their original religions (Buddhist, Taoist or Islam).[37]

In the Middle East, as the Ottoman Empire began to collapse in the 18th and 19th centuries, its territories became the field for rival European powers.[38] During World War I, the empire was drawn to the German side. At the end of the war, it was dissolved and its Muslim territories were divided among the European powers.[39] Egypt/Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Trans-Jordan and Iraq became British mandates. Syria and Lebanon were French. Persia (Iran) stood in the way of two influences – the British in the south and Russian on the north. Palestine became the home of the Jews by virtue of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which was opposed by Palestinians and the Arab nations.

Between 1880 and 1914, Europeans also divided almost the entire African continent among themselves, as an extension of balance of power politics in Europe. France controlled Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, the French West Africa, and Zimbabwe. Britain controlled (aside from Egypt/Sudan) Nigeria and Kenya. Belgium claimed Congo. The Portuguese enlarged their existing colonies in Angola and Mozambique. The Italians began their conquest of Libya in 1911. Germany occupied Namibia. Spain occupied the northern area of Morocco. The first settlers in South Africa were the Dutch (c. 1657); their descendants were called Boers (later, Afrikaners). When the British arrive in the 1800s, a war broke out between the two, which the British won. South Africa, which has a white population larger than the rest of Africa, was dominated by apartheid, that is, “separate development” between blacks and white. Former Ottoman Empire northwestern areas remained Islamic; other African countries were Christianized.

Christianity and Islam, which are universal religions (they appeal to all), had been accepted and divided almost equally in about 60 percent of the world’s population. Judaism, an ethnic religion, stayed with Jews. Nonetheless, the religious empires were meant to conquer earthly kingdoms, rather than save souls. Interestingly, the Germanic tribes that led the Holy Roman Empire (962-1806) and the Turks that ruled the Muslim empires (Ghaznavid, Moghul, Safavid and Ottoman – 900-1922) came from the northern parts of Euro-Asia. They may be both Aryans (of the lineage of Japheth). Ironically, Ezekiel 38: 10-19 and Revelation 20:18 stated that Gog and Magog will come from the north to attack the land of unwalled villages (Israel), then God will “strike your bow from your left hand and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand” (Ezekiel 39:3). Gog’s descendants may be the Germanic tribes that carried Christianity; Magog’s descendants may be the Turks that carried Islam. Both ravaged Jerusalem and the Jews.
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Bibliography

[1] The ancestry of the earlier protagonists (500 BC-700 AD) maybe traced to the biblical three sons of Noah. Judaism was primarily Semitic, from the tribe of Sem. Christians were dominated by Aryans (Greeks, Romans), descendants of Japheth. The Arabs-Muslims were basically Hamitic, from the tribe of Ham.

[2] Eastern Orthodoxy referred to the eastern collective Churches: the Byzantine Church (Turkey) and the national churches of Greece, Russia, Romania, Cyprus, Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia and the Czech Republic. Orthodoxy did not accept the infallibility of the Pope, the Immaculate Conception and the use of icons and images for worship. The Coptic Church is the native church of Egypt that seceded from Roman Catholicism in the 5th century over the dispute of the nature of Christ. The Coptic Church held that Christ had only one divine nature. Catholicism believed in His divine and human natures.

[3] Julian Johnson, The Path of the Masters, Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Punjab, India, 1993, p. 131

[4] Ross Dunn, Senior Author, et al., Links Across Time and Space, A World History, McDougal, Little & Company, Illinois, 1990, pp. 184-188. Much information about the early German people comes from Roman writers. Among them was Taciturn, who in c. 98 AD wrote “On the Origin, Geography, Institutions, and Tribes of the Germans, usually shortened to “Germania.” The tribes were also called Teutonic, and considered barbarians, i.e., they did not possess the Roman culture.

[5] Ibid; Grolier Encyclopedia, Vol. 8, “Goths,” p. 376.

[6] Grolier Encyclopedia, Vol. 19, “Vandals,” p. 121. The noun vandal reflected the sacking of Rome.

[7] Grolier Encyclopedia, Vol. 11, Lombards, p. 347

[8] Grolier Encyclopedia, Vol. 8, Franks, p. 45; History of Germany, p. 275

[9] Grolier Encyclopedia, Vol. 16, Saxony, p. 320

[10] The text about the Holy Roman Empire was based primarily from Grolier Encyclopedia, Vol. 14 “Papacy,” p. 222-226 and Vol. 9, “Holy Roman Empire,” pp. 277-278

[11] Grolier Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, Holy Roman Empire, pp. 277

[12] From Peter (d. 67 AD) until Benedict XVI (2005- ), there were 292 Popes, with 34 antipopes that held the papacy simultaneously with the “legitimate” one. Only in the 2nd, 13th and from the 16th century (Renaissance) onward was there one ruling Pope. “Is the Roman Catholic Church the true religion?” The answer of Jesus: “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthian 6:16). “The kingdom of God is not coming within signs to be observed…; for the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21).

[13] Dr. Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism, 1968, cited in S. H. Venour, The Counterfeit Kingdom, 1968, and published in web form 1968 by the same author, www.metareligion.com/Secret_societies/ New_World_Order?countereit_kingdoms.htm; Boettner added: “The Roman Catholic Church is both a church and a political system…through its local congregations, it presents itself as a religious organization, and its appeals for money and support and public trust are made on that basis. But in its higher branches…it becomes increasingly a political organization.”

[14] Merle Severly, The Byzantine Empire, Rome of the East, in National Geographic, December 1983, p. 751 Historian Sir Steven Runciman called it “the greatest crime in history.” Severy: “Burning, pillaging, raping…crusaders looted what they didn’t destroy to enrich Venice, Paris, Turin and other… centers…”

[15] William Bramley, The Gods of Eden, Avon Books, NY, 1990, p. 154. The word catharsis, I suppose, derived its meaning from this sect. In 1428, French heroine, Joan of Arc obeyed God’s call for her to save King Charles II of France; she led an army against an English invasion in Orleans. Later, she was captured, tried and condemned as a heretic by the Inquisition. After 500 years (1920), she was sainted.

[16] Bramley, pp. 164 -167; D. Walleschinsky and I. Wallace, “Crusade,” in The People’s Almanac, Doubleday & Company, Inc., NY, 1975, pp. 491-2; Grolier’s, “Crusade,” Vol. 5, pp. 350-353; there were at least 12 Crusades against Muslims and all enemies. From the Crusades emerged the Franciscan and Dominican Orders. The Franciscans were humane and adopted the cord-at-the-loin outfit and bald spot of the ancient Greek brotherhood at El Amarna. The Dominicans took charge of the Inquisition. From the Crusades also rose Templar Knights, Knights of St. John (Hospitalers) and Teutonic Knights.

[17] Bramley, p. 154; Grolier, Vol. 5 “Crusades,” pp. 350-353; the 1212 “Children’s” Crusade was the worst. En-route to Marseilles, thousands of French and German boys was tricked by scoundrels; many died from hunger and diseases. Survivors were sold as slaves to Egypt.

[18] Most accounts about the Turks and Muslim empires were based from Dunn, pp. 280-83; 422-441

[19] Grolier Encyclopedia, Vol. 14, “Ottoman Empire,” pp. 155-6; Vol. 18, “Turkey,” p. 377-81. The Seljuks were named after their first leader. Osman was also called Ottoman, from whom the Empire was named.

[20] Ibid; in 1402-13, the empire was disrupted by the invasion of the Tatar conqueror Timur. But Mehmed I (1413-21) restored the empire. The conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) highlighted the earlier Islamic excursion from Mecca westward into Europe by way of North Africa under the sixth Umayyad caliph Walid in 705-715 and under whom Tariq bin Ziyad conquered and started the 800-year rule of Spain.

[21] Dunn, p. 435

[22] After two centuries, the British departed in 1947. Thereafter, India was partitioned into two – Hindu India and Islamic Pakistan. In 1971, predominantly Hindu (East) Pakistan also declared independence from Pakistan and became Bangladesh. South of India, the predominantly Buddhist island country of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) declared independence in 1948.

[23] Bramley, pp. 350-353

[24] In the First Vatican Council, Pope Pius IX (1846-78) affirmed it and established papal control over worldwide Catholic missionary activities. In the 1964 Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII, 1958-1963, pushed Ecumenism, religious liberty and liturgy, considering perhaps, more than 200 Protestant sects. In Daniel 7: 25: “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and shall think to change the time and the law; and they shall be given into his hands for a time, two times and a half time.” The duration meant 1,250 years. From the edict of Milan in 312 AD, this would be in 1562, the Reformation.

[25] Separatists groups from the Anglican Church included the Baptists and Methodists. The Baptists or Puritans believed in the Bible, the Trinity, the virgin birth, heaven and hell, salvation by faith in Jesus and the grace of God. The word Methodist came from the methodological way Anglican clergyman John Wesley (1703-1791) performed religious duties. Methodists adhered to the Trinity, baptism and communion, but held that individual love of God and religious experience mean more than doctrine.

[26] A once important Calvinist tenet, predestination (by God) is no longer emphasized. In the U.S., the church was known as the Reformed Church.

[27] Jules Michelet, French historian first used Renaissance, the “discovery of world and of man” in 1855.In A History of Knowledge, a book by Charles Van Doren, the Bubonic plague that started in Byzantium in 1355 led many to migrate to Western Europe, carrying manuscripts of Greek and Roman culture. Coupled with the printing press, which Johann Gutenberg had perfected in 1450, the movement grew.

[28] Dunn, p. 316; Cynthia Giles, Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg, US Games Systems, Inc., USA, p. 33

[29] According to a Russian legend, King Vladimir (c. 988) of the city of Kiev (seat of power) interviewed missionaries from different countries. He turned down Islam because it did not allow drinking, “the joy of Russians.” He turned down the Jews because they did not have a country. He accepted Byzantium Orthodoxy because of the beauty of its churches and services. He married a Byzantine princess.

[30] In Dawud, p. 52, the Karamatians (Karaites) carried the sacred Black Stone from the Kaaba and kept it in their own country for 20 years. They returned it back since they could not draw the pilgrims from Mecca.

[31] Grolier, Vol. 2, “Ashkenazim,” p. 183; Vol. 10, “Jews,” pp. 356-361; Vol. 16, “Sephardim,” p. 402

[32] In 711, Spain came under the dominion of the Muslims.

[33] Spain and Portugal initially partitioned the non-Christian world into two spheres of influence. In the 1493 Papal Bull issued by Spanish Pope Alexander VI and the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, the New World was granted to Spain, while Africa, India and Brazil were reserved for Portugal.

[34] In 1507, a German geographer named the New World America in honor of Amerigo Vespucci (1452-1572), a Florentine mariner who published his trip to the New World. The historical error stuck.

[35] Through four voyages, Cook was credited with the discovery of most Pacific Islands, including Hawaii

[36] Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago were British mandates, which became independent in 1962.

[37] In 1898, the US, a new “western” power gained the Philippines and Guam after defeating Spain in the Cuban war. The Philippines was Christianized after Magellan discovered it in 1521. The southern part remained Muslim. US annexed Hawaii and Guam. Australia controlled Papua New Guinea.

[38] Within Turkey, reforms ended traditional institutions that caused internal conflicts, such as the devshirme class and the Janissary corp. In 1908 a revolution by “Young Turks” overthrew the ruling elite and instituted reforms. In 1923, the Republic of Turkey was born, with its capital in Ankara.

[39] Egypt/Sudan became a republic in 1953. Sudan declared independence from Egypt in 1956. From 1958-61, Egypt was united with Syria as the United Arab Republic (UAR). Syria was independent in 1961.