sstd five
The life and
teaching of BuddhaThere are four
great religions in the world today: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
You will read about the first three of these in this book, beginning with
Buddhism. This has
been especially important in Asia for a long time, but today it is also becoming
better known in the West.
Buddha’s search
for the truth 1stBuddhism was
started by a rich Hindu prince called Gautama.(expressen) He lived in northern India from 560 to 480 BC. Gautama
had a happy life until he was 29, when first a very old man and then a dying
man. He wondered why people had to suffer.He left his
palace, his wife and his son, and wandered through northern India for six
years, He had no money, his clothes were rags and he slept out of doors, He
starved himself until he really died. But he knew that he could not find the
answer to suffering in this way.He sat under a
big tree to think.(not for
think) He said he would not move until he had found the answer to this
question. At the end of a week they knew. People suffered because they kept on
wanting things- money, goods power.Gautama now
understood the truth. His followers called him the Buddha. This means “The
Enlightened One”Until he died,
forty years later, Gautama taught other people what he had found out. He had
many disciples of all kinds of people: rich and poor, men and women, king and
ordinary people. You can see some of the ideas the taught on the next page. The teaching of BuddhaBuddha taught
that there are six kinds of beings gods, half-gods, ghosts, demons, animals and
humans. All of these suffer pain in both body and mind, and all die. When they
die their spirits are reborn into other beings,
depending on how they behaved in the last life. A
human who had been bad in one life might
be reborn as an animal or a demon: a good animal might be reborn as a
human or even a god. This is called the Wheel of life. All beings are forced to
suffer and be born again and again because they have desire that is, they
always want things. The aim of all beings, Buddha said, is to escape from this
wheel by learning to stop wanting. When people think and meditate, and have
destroyed all desire, they reach a state called Nirvana. Here they will know
all truth and never have to be born again.The Eightfold
Noble PathBuddha ta
ught
that to reach Nirvana people must follow the Eightfold Noble Path.·
Three steps of the Noble Path deal with
how people should behave and live peacefully with one another. These say that
people must not lie, cheat, do evil, kill any living things or harm anyone
else. They say that quarrels should be settled by discussion and not fighting.
All people-women or men, rich or poor- should be considered equal as human beings. The good things of life should be
shared. Kindness, compassion and love should rule everyone’s life. Five of the
steps on this path are about thinking. They help people to meditate and to
discover the deeper truths of Buddhism. In this way they can learn to have no
desires and feelings for themselves, but to love all people and all things. In
this way they can reach Nirvana and peace. These steps are difficult because
people might not have the time for the deep meditation that is needed.
AsokaIn Book One we
learned something about Asoka, the great emperor of India (268-231). He was very
important in spreading the idea of Buddhism through South-east
Asia.Asoka becomes a
BuddhistAsoka’s armies
conquered the state of Kialing in eastern India. When Asoka saw how many
people had been killed, he was very unhappy. He said that he would never have
war again in his empire, and he became a Buddhist.Asoka spreads
Buddhism throughout his empireAll over his
great empire Asoka put up stone pillars carved with the teachings of Buddha. He
also tried to carry out Buddha’s teaching
that a ruler must be good to all his people.He made his servants plant trees along the hot dusty
roads to shade people from the sun. He made them dig wells so that travelers
could have water. He built small house by the roads so that travelers could
shelter at night. He set up hospitals, and made
the monks plant gardens full of herbs. These were used to cure people and
animals when they were ill. People could travel all over his empire in safety.Many people
became monks or nuns and large monasteries were built. Many stapes or shines
were also built. These were built. These were buildings of solid stone built
over a holy relic of Buddha or a place
visited by Buddha during his life. People worshipped at stapes by walking round
them and praying at the same time. The reign or Asoka was a time of great peace
and happiness throughout the empire.Buddhism dividesMany people,
including nobles, became Buddhist monks when Asoka was emperor. Some monks were
much stricter than other monks. The strict monks believed in such things as not eating(expression) after midday; no dancing, singing or
amusements; no flowers, cosmetics or other decorations. They believed that
Gautama was an ordinary man, not a god. They also said that only monks would
ever get to Nirvana. This strict kind of Buddhism was called Hiragana.
Something it is known as Theravada. The monks who were not so strict believed
that ordinary people could also get to Nirvana. They believed that Gautama was
a god and not a human being. Their kind of Buddhism therefore divided into.The missionariesAsoka sent
missionaries all over India
to teach people about Buddhism. Later on, missionaries went to Sri Lanka, Burma,
Malaysia, Thailand and the rest of South-east
Asia. They taught the Hiragana kind of Buddhism which is still
practiced in these countries today.The end of
Buddhism in IndiaAfter Asoka’s
death Buddhism slowly became less important in India. This was mainly because two
very powerful groups of people did not like it. The Brahmins did not like Buddhism
because it did not believe in the caste system. The warrior caste did not like
it because it wanted peace. So Hinduism became stronger again. Many of the
Buddhist monks seemed more interested in study and ceremonies than in helping
people. Many smaller monasteries closed down, and monks moved to the big ones.In the 6th century
AD the fierce Xing-nu invaded
India.
They destroyed many of the great Buddhist monasteries and stole their treasures. This made
Buddhism even weaker.The end Buddhism
in India offing the 12th
century AD the Turkish Muslims destroyed the last great Buddhist monasteries,
and Buddhism seemed to have died out in India. Most people went back to being Hindus. But in fact
many Buddhist beliefs came from Hinduism in the first place. The Hindus in India
took Buddha as one of their gods and also
followed some o f the Buddhist ideas on peace. So Hinduism became stronger
again. Many of the Buddhist monks seemed more interested in study and ceremonies than in
helping people.Many smaller
monasteries closed down, and monks moved to the big ones.They destroyed
many of the great Buddhist monasteries and stole their treasures. This made
Buddhism even weaker Inside a Tibetan temple in India The end of Buddhism in India In
the 12th century AD the Turkish Muslims destroyed the last great
Byrd DeAnd Buddhism
seemed to have died out
in India Most people went back to beign Hindus But in fact many Buddhist came
from Hinduism in the first place. The Hindus in India took Buddha as one of their
gods and also followed some of the Buddhist ideas on peace.Some of the
reasons why Buddhism ended in India HINDUISMBUDDHISM Tibetan
morns at a Buddhist ceremony Lour especiallyAt their
colorful clothes and the musical instruments two groups.A big meeting of
monks was held in 250 BC at Patna in northern India to talk
about these differences. The strict monks were the larger and stronger group.
The monks who were not so strict moved away quite peacefully towards north-west
India Here they came across the Greek civilization which had been taken there
by Alexander the Great.
The missionaries
Asoka sent
missionaries all over India to teach people about Buddhism later on
missionaries Went to sir which is still
pray –tides in these countries today
Lanka,
Burma, Malaysia Thailand and the rest of
south-east Asia they taught the
hiragana kind of Buddhism which
is still practiced in these countries today.The end of
Buddhism in IndiaAfter Asoka’s death
Buddhism slowly became less important in India. This was mainly because two
very powerful groups of people did not like Buddhism because it did not believe
in the caste system. The warrior caste did not like it because it wanted peace.
So Hinduism became stronger again. Many of the Buddhist monks seemed more
interested in study and ceremonies than in helping people.(expression) Many smaller monasteries closed down, and
monks moved to the big ones.In the 6th
century AD the fierce Xing-nu invaded India. They destroyed many of the
great Buddhist monasteries and stole their treasures. This made Buddhism even
weaker.The end of
Buddhism in IndiaIn the 12th
century AD the Turkish Muslims destroyed the last great Buddhist monasteries,
and Buddhist seemed to have died out in India. Most people went back to
being Hindus. But in fact many Buddhist beliefs came from Hinduism in the first place. The Hindus in India took
Buddha as one of their gods and also followed some of the Buddhist ideas on
peace.The spread of Buddhism
At first the monks did not make much progress.
But by the end of the Han Dynasty life was very troubled in China. Ordinary
people were very unhappy and wanted a new religion that would give them some
hope. Many of the ideas and ceremonies of Buddhism were not very different from
those of Confucianism and Daoism (see Book One) so that it was not hard for
people to change their religion. In the 4th century AD Buddhism
began to spread quickly in China,
and in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906) it was the most important religion in the
country.The pilgrimsChinese
Buddhists wanted to go to India
to study. The first important pilgrim was faxing
who crossed Central Asia in AD 399, and came back to China by ship in AD 414. He brought
back many holy books and spent the rest of his life translating them.Xian Zhan left China in AD 629 and crossed central Asia into
north-west India.
He spent sixteen years there collecting and studying holy books. When he came
back to China
in AD 645 he translated many of them. He also wrote a famous book, called The
Record of the Western Regions about what he had seen on his travels. It is very
important because it describes many things which no one else has written
about. In AD 671 Yi
Jing left Guangzhou and went by sea to India. He stayed
there for many years studying and translating Buddhist books. When he came back
in AD 695 he also wrote about the countries of South-east
Asia. This is the only book we have about that part of the world
at that time.Buddhism and
welfareThe Buddhist
monks in China
tried to help the people as they did in other countries. They built mills for
grain and presses for oil. They built rest- houses and hostels for travelers.
They looked after sick people and gave food to the poor. They set up homes for
old people who could not look after themselves. The monasteries had bath-house
which ordinary people could use.However, some
Chinese emperors attacked Buddhism because they thought the monks were getting
too powerful. But Buddhism did not die away in China
as it did in India.
It remained a strong religion and had a great effect on Chinese life.The effects of
Buddhism on ChinaBuddhism had
important effects on the lives of Chinese people in many ways. Here are some of
the more important ones.ThinkingBuddhist
teaching influenced the teaching of some Confucian scholars. Before this time
scholars thought mainly about what people did and how they should behave in
their families, in their villages and in the state. Now they began to think
more about knowledge and what happened inside people minds. This led to the
development of no-Confucianism in the 12th century AD.The spread of
books and printingIn the 8th
century AD, more people wanted to learn Buddhist and Daoism prayers, and to
study Confucian writings for the civil service examinations. All books at this
time had to be written by hand, which was very slow. In the 8th
century the Chinese learned how to crave a whole page on a block of wood. Books
could now be made much more quickly and cheaply so that more people could have
them.ArtAt first the
Chinese artists copied the Indian way of drawing and making statues of Buddha.
But soon they began to use their own style. The drawing below was made in China about AD
900. It shows a Buddha leading the spirit of a woman who has just died to the Pure Land
in the sky. Paintings like this were sometimes hung in the rooms of people who
were dying. This made them feel less afraid of death because they were going to
such a wonderful.BuildingThe Buddhists
were the first people to build pagodas. These were tall temples, often built at
holy places or over holy object. The idea of the pagoda came from the Buddhist
sputa. The pagodas in the picture below are near Song sung in Henan Province,
and were used as tombs.Huge statues of
Buddha were also made in many places in China. The one in the photograph
above is at Yunnan in Shanxi province.StoriesUntil Buddhism
came to China,
most Chinese literature was poetry and essays. The Buddhist monks wanted to
teach the people about their religion and so told those stories. These stories
told people how they should behave, but they were also interesting to make the
people listen to them. One of the most famous is about the monk Xian and his
disciples, the monkey, the pig and the sand monk. These stories influenced the
writing of novels in China.Japan Buddhism in
Buddhism spread
to Japan from Korea in the 6th century AD, and soon
became a very important religion in Japan.First of all,
Buddhism went from India to China. Here it
added many Confucian and Daoism ideas to its beliefs. From China it went to Korea, where it added more ideas.
When it reached Japan
it took over some ideas from the early Japanese religion called Shinto. In
Shinto people worshipped nature- the sun, trees, stones and water- and also
their ancestors.In Japan, Buddhism
split into many different kinds. Many people believed in the Chinese-Korean
from of Buddhism, but there were two other very important kinds. These were
pure Land Buddhism and Zen Buddhism. Both of these were known in China but they did not become so popular there
as they did in Japan.Zen BuddhismZen is a
Japanese word meaning ‘meditation’ or ‘thinking’. It is the same as the Chinese
‘Chan’. Zen is a ‘quiet’ religion in which people find peace by meditation. It
is still widely practiced in Japan
and many other parts of the world. Zen Buddhism led to the Japanese customs of
the tea Ceremony, flower arranging and the sand gardens. All of these
activities are peaceful and make the mind calm.Pure- Land BuddhismThis kind of
Buddhism said there was a beautiful land in the sky where everything was
perfect. People would go there when they died if they had been good. It was a
bit like the Christian Heaven or the Islamic Paradise in the picture at the top
left of page 11.Buddhism in South-east AsiaBuddhism spread
through South-east Asia in a complicated way.
It came to this part of the world at different times and by different ways. The
most important way was through Sri
Lanka. Buddhism was taken there in the time
of Asoka, and it is still one of the most strongly Buddhist countries in the
world today.From the first
century AD onwards monks and merchants took both Hiragana and Mahayana Buddhism
to South-east Asia. Sometimes the rulers of
powerful empires like the Sri Vijay in the 7th century AD (which
included Inkiness, Malaysia
and parts of Java and Borneo) and the Khmers in the 9th century (who
ruled Thailand, Laos, Cambodia
and parts of Burma)
made Buddhism the religion of all their lands. Most of the Buddhists in
South-east Asia are now Hiragana Buddhists, but in the 13th century
AD many people in Indonesia
and Malaysia
changed to Islam.Some of the
world’s biggest and most beautiful religious buildings are in South-east
Asia. Because Buddhism took over many of the local gods and ideas,
the temples here are often very different from one country to another.The Beginnings of ChristianityThe Jews in IsraelAbout 3500 years
ago the Jewish people settled in the country we now call Israel. They
were very strict in their religion and believed in one god who was very stern,
but fair. Their religious writing said that one hay God would send a holy man-
the Messiah- who would save Israel
from all her troubles.In 63 BC Israel was
conquered by the Romans. They called it Palestine
and made it part of their empire. It now had a Roman governor and Roman
soldiers, which the Jews hated.Jesus ChristAbout 2000 years
ago a boy was born to a Jewish family in the town of Bethlehem. He was named Jesus. We know only a
few things about his early life but he seems to have been a most remarkable
boy. When he was about 30 years old, he began to preach a new religion. He said
that he was the Messiah and that he had come from God to save his people, the
Jews. Later he said that he did not mean that he had come to drive out the
Romans. His religion taught that people should live in peace, but, first of
all, they must worship and obey God. Only then should they obey their rulers.His teachings
annoyed the Romans who felt that he might be trying to start a rebellion. The
leaders of the Jewish people were also angry because he did not agree with some
of their ideas, and also because he said he was the Messiah. They had expected
a great warrior leader, not a man of peace.About AD 33
Jesus was arrested. He was found guilty of saying things against the Jewish
religion. He was executed by crucifixion. This was the usual way in which the
Romans punished serious criminals. They were nailed to a cross of wood and left
there to die.Jesus had a number
of followers, called disciples, who travelled with him and helped him to teach
his religion. These disciples said those three days after his execution he
raised from the dead. For the next forty days he was seen by many of his
friends. He told them they must go out and teach other people about his ideas.
Then he went back to Heaven.The early
ChristiansJesus’ followers
taught that when the world ended everyone would rise from the dead. If they had
been good in life they would go to Heaven. If they had not done the things that
Jesus had told them, they would go to hell.The spread of
ChristianityThe Christian
religion spread slowly from Israel
to some parts of Asia Minor and North Africa.
Finally it reached Rome
itself. At first it was popular mainly with working people, slaves and women.
Many of the religion of the time did not allow women or slaves to take part.
Christianity gave ordinary people some hope of a better life after death. It
also taught them how they should behave towards one another. Most other Roman
religion was just concerned with ceremonies.PersecutionAt first the
Roman rulers did not mind the new religion. Then some emperors thought the
Christians were plotting against them. From time to over the next 250 years the
Christians were persecuted. Thousands were thrown to wild animals in the arena.
The mosaic above made in North Africa about AD
150. It shows Christians being killed in an arena near the town or Tripoli.Because of the
danger of persecution, Christians had secret signs which let them know who else
was a Christian. One of these signs was a drawing of a fish because the first
letters of ‘fish’ in Greek stand for ‘Issus Christos’. Another sign was the chi-rho. This is the two
Greek letters for X and R. Again the sign stands for ‘Christos’.The picture at
the bottom of the page shows how one modern painter thought the end of the
world would be. Everyone would come out of their graves to be judged by God.The spread of
Christianity and the power of the PopeIn AD 312 the
Roman emperor Constantine passed a law which stopped the persecution of
Christians. He later became the state religion of the Roman
Empire.The Church came
to be called the Catholic Church. The word ‘catholic’ means ‘for every one’. At
the head of the Church was the Bishop of Rome, who after AD 600 was called the
Pope. Under him were the Chief Bishops of each Provence of the empire. Under them were the
lesser bishops of the different cities and Provence. This gave the Pope great power all
over Europe.The Eastern and
Western empiresIn AD 330 Constantine moved the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium.
He called the new capital Constantinople,
after himself. Today it is the city of Istanbul
in Turkey.
There were now really two Roman empires- the East with its capital at
Constantinople, and the West with its capital at Rome. The Emperor lived in the Eastern Empire so that the Bishop of Rome now became the
most powerful man in the western half of empire.The quarrel
between the two ChurchesThe Churches in
the two halves of the empire had slightly different ideas, though Christians in
the Eastern Empire agreed that the Pope in Rome was their head. These different between
the Churches grew bigger in the following centuries and, in about AD 10000, the
Orthodox Church, with its own leader in Constantinople.
In the 11th century Russia
and much of Eastern Europe joined the Orthodox
Church. The Church in the West remained the Catholic Church under the Pope.The conversion
of the barbariansBy the 5th
century AD many people all over Western Europe
had became Christian. Then, from about AD 400 onwards, many barbarian tribes
from the east conquered Britain,
Greek many, France, Italy
and Spain.
They were pushed westward by the Xinhua moving from Central
Asia. All of them worshipped different, and often very fierce,
gods. The old Roman Empire was now broken up
into many separate countries, each with its own king and religion.Cities like Rome, and parts of some countries like Ireland and Wales, had remained Christian.
Missionaries from these places went to try to teach the barbarians and make
then Christian. About AD 500 Cloves, the king of the Franks (roughly modern France), became
a Christian because his wife told him that God had let him win a great battle.
Cloves made all of his people become Christian as well. By the end of the 7th
century most of Western Europe belonged to the
Catholic Church. The people of Scandinavia, eastern Germany
and central Europe were the last to become
Christian, but by the 11th century they too had joi9ned the Church of Rome.Charlemagne and
the Holy Roman EmpireAll of this made
the Pope and the Catholic Church even more powerful. In AD 768 Charlemagne
became king of the Franks. He conquered modern France,
Belgium, Holland
northern Italy and large
parts of Germany and Austria. He
called this the Holy Roman Empire and in AD
800 he asked the Pope to crown him emperor.This was a very
important step because before this kings had always put the crown on their own
heads. By asking the Pope to crown him Charlemagne showed that he thought the
Pope was above even kings and Emperors.Christianity in
the Dark AgesIn Book One we
saw how Europe was conquered by barbarians in
the 4th to 6th centuries AD. They were fierce, wild
people. Almost none of them could read or write. They settled down in small
villages and lived very hard, rough lives. For centuries they had no towns.
They did not know about the civilization of Rome. The 5th to the 9th
centuries Ad in Europe are called the Dark
Ages.Many Christians were
killed by the barbarians. Many people went back to their old gods, but some
stayed Christian. There were still monks and they helped to keep some Christian
learning alive. Often they built monasteries on small islands or in places that
were hard to reach. Many of the monasteries were destroyed by barbarians who
wanted the gold and silver vessels the monks kept in their monasteries. But
these monks kept some civilization alive. They kept speaking Latin. They kept
copying bibles and holy books and filling them with beautiful drawings. They
wrote down as far as they could what was happening in their land. When the
barbarians had settled down and were more peaceful, the monks went out to teach
them Christianity. They began to bring back a little of the civilization of Greece and Rome.The church helps
the peopleFrom the 9th
century onwards most of Western Europe was
Christian. The Church taught the people about their religion and how to lead
Christian lives. It helped them in many other ways as well.The head of the
church was the Pope. He was also the bishop of Rome (see page 18). The Christians believed
that he was god’s representative on earth. The Pope was above all the kings in Europe. This helped to keep the peach. He could order
countries to stop fighting and arrange treaties between nations.Only the church
could protect people who were being treated badly. It could put pressure on
cruel kings and nobles to be fair.The church would
not let people work on Sundays or on holy days. This gave ordinary people some
time for rest and enjoyment in their hard lives.A king’s chief
advisers were usually important men of the church. They helped to make the
laws, and saw that they were carried out properly throughout the country.All the
churchmen in Europe spoke and wrote in the
same language- Latin. This meant that scholars could travel or write to any
other country easily.A few children
from peasant families could rise in the world through the church. Some clever
boys might become monks and eventually important churchmen.The age of
church buildingWe call the
period lasting from the 10th to the 15th centuries the
Middle Ages. It was the great time of building churches in Europe.
Many churches were built so that there was almost one church for every forty or
fifty families. Most of these churches are still standing today and are still
used.At first the
churches were built like small castles, with narrow windows and doors and very
thick walls. They were not very wide, and the roof had to be held up by thick stone.
There was still a lot of fighting everywhere at this time, and people went to
these strong churches for safety when there was trouble.Later on, life
became a little more peaceful. People wanted to build bigger and more beautiful
churches because they thought that this would place god. Do not forget that
they had no steel bars, no machines of any kind and only simple tools like
hammers and spades. There were a few simple wooden cranes worked by hand. These
huge buildings were made in stone and cement. It is difficult for us today to
understand how men could plan such great churches using only pens, rulers and
paper. It seems almost impossible that people could build them all by hand.Gothic buildingThe builders of
the middle ages invented a style of building called gothic. They found out that
they could make wider doorways, windows and roofs if these were pointed instead
of flat or round. They found out how they could make walls thinner and the
whole building larger, taller and full of light. They did this by using tall
columns to hold up the roof, or building little walls called buttresses against
the main walls. They built many towers and spires because these seemed to point
the way to heaven. The windows were filled with stained glass, and there were
many statues and carvings. Many of these windows and statues told stories from
the Bible.The men and
women of the churchIn the middle
ages, the church was a part of everyone’s life. It held the whole country
together. Everyone went to all the services. A quarter of the people in a
country were closely connected with the church – priests, monks, nuns, friars
or just ordinary people working for the monasteries.The archbishops
and bishopsThese people
were at the head of the church. They were usually noblemen and were the king’s
advisers and often his chief officials. They were the king’s advisers and often
his chief officials. They were sent to other countries on the king’s business.
The bishops were sometimes the chief judges of a country, especially at trials
by ordeal like the one in the picture below.The abbots and
abbessesThese were the
heads of the big monasteries and convents. They too usually came from noble
families. The abbots were also the king’s advisers and had great power.The priestsThese people
took the services in the churches. The village priests were often peasants who
could not read or write. They learned the services by heart. They had land in
the village fields like the other peasants. They were often the leaders of the
village people and helped them in every way they could.Monks and nunsThese were
people of all kinds- nobles and peasants- who had given their lives to god. You
can read about life in a monastery or convent on page 50.FriarsThese were a
kind of monk who did not live in a monastery, but wanted all over the country.
They preached as they went to the different villages. They had no homes so that
people gave them food and shelter. Often they were hungry and had to sleep in
the fields.HermitsThese were men
or women- monks, nuns or ordinary people – who tried to serve God by living,
praying and worshipping alone. Often they lived in caves or lonely huts in very
bad conditions. People thought they were very holy and brought them food.PilgrimsThese were
people who went on journeys to visit holy place. Sometimes it was where a saint
had lived or sometimes where a miracle had taken place. The best places of all
were Compostable in Spain,
or Roman where St. Peter was buried, or even Jerusalem. Pilgrims often took many months or
years to go on their journey. They often went in large groups for safety and
for company. The poorer pilgrims begged for food and shelter on the way. Sometimes they went just to please God,
sometimes to try to make sure they went to Heaven, or sometimes to be cured of
illnesses.The Age of FaithIn the middle
Ages in Europe, people believed everything
they were told. These were especially true about religion, and so we often call
the middle Ages the Age of Faith.Most people
never went more than a few kilometers from their village in the whole of their
lives. They knew little of what was happening in other parts of the country.
The very few strangers they saw often told lies to make they seem important.
Very few people often not even kings and nobles could read or write. The only
people who could do so were the priests and monks. They wrote and copied all of
the books so that these were almost always about religion in the way that the
priests and monks believed it.Because of this
the church was the centre of people’s lives. The priest was usually the most
important man in the village. He gave the people advice on everything. He
baptized them, married them and buried them. He gave them the only teaching
they had, which was about religion. He helped when they were old or poor or
sick. He told them how to behave. The church gave them festivals and holidays.
As a result, the people believed whatever the priests and the church told them.
The church therefore became interested only in money and spent more time on
politics than on religions.People’s great
faith made them very superstitious. Most of them did not think for themselves
but believed everything the priests and preachers told them. Sometimes these
men were wicked and greedy. They tricked the people out of money, goods and
land in the name of religion. Often they terrified the people into doing bad
things by threatening them with terrible punishments after death.This great faith
also made people do wonderful things they would not otherwise have done. They
worked for years building and decorating great churches with simple hand tools.
They did brave things in wars and on pilgrimages for their religion. They went
through great pain and suffering without complaining. They risked their lives
in many ways for religion looking after people with terrible diseases, for
example.Christianity
comes to ChinaA few Catholic
missionaries went to eastern Asia before the
16th century. But even the most famous of this St. Francis Xavier
(1506-1552) made little progress in China.The Reformation
and missionsAt the
Reformation in the 15th and 16th centuries the Christian
Church spit (page 106). The new order of Jesuits (page 112) was very important
in this missionary work.Mateo (Matthew)
Ricci, 1552-1610Mateo Ricci was
a brilliant scholar who studied mathematics, astronomy, geography and science
before becoming a Jesuit.He went to the
Portuguese trading post of Macau in 1582 and
there learned how to speak and write Chinese. After a great struggle he was
allowed to enter China
itself. Unlike many missionaries before and after him, Ricci had a great
respect for Confucianism. He tried to show that some of its ideas were very
similar to those of Christianity. He dressed as a Confucian scholar, learned
the Confucian way of life, and behaved much like a real Chinese Confucian
gentleman. But always the task of converting people to Christianity was most
important to him.Soon he had a
wide circle of important friends among the scholars, officials and through
their influence he was able to set up a mission in Beijing itself. At a time when most Europeans
believed the people of Asia to be barbarians,
he realized that their culture was at least as good as that of the West and
that both sides could learn from one another.He managed to
convert only about two thousand people in his lifetime, but many of these were
high officials. Ricci was important because his understanding and behavior made
it easier for later missionaries to come to china. In the century following his
death, the Catholic Church, especially the Jesuits, became quite influential at
court. After the beginning of the 18th century, however, Christian
influence began to decrease.Robert Morrison,
1782-1834The first
important protestant missionary to visit china was Robert Morrison who went to Guangzhou in 1807. He had
studied Chinese and became a translator for English merchants because the only
way he could get into china was a trader. But like Ricci, his real aim was
missionary work.One of his most
famous tasks was to translate the bible and prayer books into Chinese, and to
write a six- volume Chinese- English dictionary and grammar.In 1818 Morrison
helped to set up a college in Malacca,
Malaysia which
was the nearest large British-controlled city to china. Here Chinese and
English students worked together to learn about the other’s language and
culture. In 1842, six years after Morrison’s death, this college was moved to
the new British colony of Hong Kong. It became
part of the government’s educational system in 1849 and was important because
it was one of first schools in the colony.Morrison also
set up a clinic staffed by Chinese assistants. This too was important as it was
one of the first medical missions.Christianity in
Hong king todayIn Hong Kong today there are about half a million people who
belong to catholic or protestant churches. But as well as providing religious
services the Christian churches are very much involved with education and
social welfare. There are over 800 schools and eleven major hospitals run by
the catholic and protestant organizations, as well as clinics, colleges, social
centers and homes for old and handicapped people.The public
holidays at Christmas and Easter are also a reminder of the influence of
Christianity in Hong Kong. Summary·
Christianity was started in Israel by Jesus
Christ. He taught that people must love one another and live in peace. They
must obey god’s laws first, and then the laws of their country.
·
Jesus was executed for saying things
against the Jewish religion. His followers went on with his teaching.
·
The new religion began to spread through
the Roman Empire. At first the Romans
persecuted the Christians.
·
In AD 312, the emperor Constantine
became a Christian. In AD 391, Christianity became the state religion of Rome.
·
Emperor Constantine moved the capital of
the empire to Byzantium.
There were now two empires: the west and the east. The chief person in the
western empire was the pope in Rome.
·
Heathen barbarians invaded Europe from the 5th to 9th
centuries. They killed many Christians, but some monks kept the Christian
civilization and learning alive. Later, missionaries came from the monasteries
to convert the barbarians to Christianity.
·
The Catholic Church became very
powerful. The pope was above all kings and emperors because he was god’s
representative on earth.
·
The church was very important in the
middle ages: the bishops were the king’s advisers; churchmen were the only
people who could read or write; the church helped the ordinary people in many
ways.
·
Mateo Ricci and Robert Morrison were
among the most famous Christian mission were among the most famous Christian
missionaries who came to china. In Hong Kong
today we can see many examples of Christian influence.
Words to learnThe Jews a race
of people who lived in IsraelMessiah the name
given to the person whom the Jews thought god would send to save them; Jesus
Christ
To preachRebellionArrestedGuiltyTo executeHeavenHellPersecutionBishopTreatyGothicSpireStained glassFaithTo baptizeSuperstitionThe feudal
systemIn the Middle
Ages almost everyone was in the upper class or the lower class. The king, the
nobles, the chief men in the Church and the knights were in the upper class.
The peasants, the craftsmen and the ordinary priests were in the lower class.
Almost everyone stayed in the class into which they were born.The feudal
systemAll the land in
the country belonged to the king, but he found it hard to rule all by him.
There were no policemen; there were no real rods. It took weeks for the king’s
soldiers to get from one part of the country to another if there was trouble.
So the king ruled by the feudal system. This meant that everyone had to obey
someone above him and had and had to protect those below him.The chief noblesThe king divided
the country into large areas and ‘gave’ them to the chief nobles and to the
Church.The nobles and
the Church ruled their area for the king. The nobles paid rent for their land
by promising to obey the king and to provide him with soldirs, food and supplies.The ChurchThe Church paid
for its land by praying for the king and by provides food and supplies for the
king from its land.The lesser
nobles and knightsThe great nobles
could not rule all of their land easily, so they divided it up into smaller
areas. These were usually a village and all the land round it. This was called
a manor. The knight, who lived in the manor house, looked after uir for the
noble. The knight paid rent for his land by promising to obey the noble, to
join his army with a number of foot soldiers, and to give him food and other
supplies.The peasantsThe knight and
his servants could not farm all the land round the village themselves, so they
let the peasants use some of it. The peasants had to obey the knight and to
give the knight some of the food they grew, and do many duties for him.In this way the
king’s laws went right through the land from nobles to peasants. But, as
always, the peasants had the worst of everything.The medieval
villageIn the middle
Ages most people lived in small villages. Each village had a manor house where
the lord lived. There was a church, a water-mill and small huts for the
peasants. There were four big fields of about 100 hectares. Three fields were
used in turn for growing wheat and barley. One field grew grass all the time.
There was also common land where nothing was planted. All found the fields were
big forests.Common landThis was land
where the grass was not very good. All the village people could let their
animals go on the common to get food. Often children were sent to look after
the animals and make sure they did not run away.The manorThe lord had a
big house with a lot of rooms and many servants. The house was often made of
stone and had a large garden. There were stables’ for the lord’s horses and
kennels for his hunting dogs. There were buildings for pigeons. The lord ate
these birds in the winter when there was not much meat. There was a large
garden where vegetables, herbs and fruit trees grew. There were many beehives
because sugar was very expensive. The4 lord also had pieces of land in the big
fields.The forestsThe nobles spent
much of their time hunting in the forests. They hunted for food and for fun.
Bur if the peasants hunted there, they were punished get wood and wild herbs
and fruit from the forests. They could also let their pigs go there to get
food.The hay fieldThis was a big
field of grass. Every January a fence was put all round it to keep animals away
and let the grass grow. The grass was cut in June and made into hay for feeding
animals in the winter. From June to December the animals could go on the hay
field to feed. They helped to manure the ground and make more grass grow the
next year.The three big
fieldsThese were
divided into strips about 200 meters long and 20 meters wide. Every family had
ten to fifteen strips. These strips were scattered all over the three fields so
that everybody had some good land and some poor land. Everyone had to grow the
same crops.In one year the
first field was planted with wheat to made bread. The second field was planted
with barley to make beer. The third field was not planted with anything and had
a rest. Weeds grew on it. Cows and sheep walked over it eating the weeds. Their
manure helped to make the field grow crops the next year. Every year the fields
changed round as you can see in the chart on the right.This kind of
farming is called the three-field system. It let everyone have some land. But
it was not a good way of farming because a lot of land was wasted. People wasted
time going from one piece of land to another. Lazy peasants let weeds grow on
their land, and the seeds blew on to the4 land of people who worked have. No
one was allowed to try out new plants. Today the same field would grow more
than twenty times as much as it did the middle Ages.The noble’s
manor houseIn the early
middle Ages, the nobles fought each other a lot. They needed strong castles to
protect themselves. These castles were built of stone and were could and
uncomfortable. After about 1300 most nobles began to build manor houses.These often had
a strong tower in case there was trouble, but the rest of the house was much
more comfortable. In times of peace the tower was used for the noble’s private
room and bedroom.The Great HallThe Great Hall
was the most important room in the manor. Everyone ate in the hall. Here the
noble did business; his children had lessons, and everyone danced and played.
The servants slept on the floor round the fire. The one end was a high platform
where musicians played at dinner time. It was also used for dancing.The feastThe most
important meal in the manor was dinner. It began about 10a.m. and lasted two or
three hours. The noble and his family sat on a raised platform at one of end.
At the other end was a gallery where musicians played. Guests and servants sat
at two long tables in the hall.When dinner was
ready, the servants came from the kitchen. First were the head servant, and
then a servant with a dish where people put the food they did not eat. This
food was then given to the poor. For important nobles there was a man who
tasted all of the food to make sure it was not poisoned. Then came the chief
carver. He was often the son of a nobleman. Then came the chief cook. He
carried a wooden spoon as his badge. Last of all came the servants with the
food and drink.There were many
dishes in a meal – perhaps twelve on an ordinary day and thirty at a special
feast. People were not very polite at meals. They did not eat out of bowls.
Instead, they put their food on thick slices of dry bread. At the end of the
meal they often ate their `plates’ too.They threw bones
and things they could not eat on the floor. They spat on the floor. They poured
drink they did not want on the floor. They ate with their fingers, and often
wiped them on the table- cloths.After dinner
there were often people who danced, sang, juggled or told jokes to the people
in the hall.The medieval
peasant: his home and his yearThe peasant’s
home was usually a long, low building with just one large room. The peasant
kept his animals (his oxen, cows, pigs and chickens) at one end of the room. He
and his family lived at the other. The house had mud (or sometimes stone)
walls, and a roof of straw.There was a
small window, but it had no glass. There was a piece of wood to put across the
widow at night and in bad weather. The floor was earth covered with rushes. The
fire was on a stone in the centre of the room. The smoke went out through a
hole in the roof.The peasant had
very little furniture. There were some stools and a box to keep spare clothes
(if the family had any) and other important things in. The bed was a kind of
box on the floor with a mattress filled with straw. There were barrels and tubs
for keeping stores in, and some shelves for pots, bowls and other cooking
things. Farm tools were hung on the walls. Sometimes there was a loft over the
animals’ part of the room. This was used for hay and other stores, but
sometimes the children slept up there.The peasant’s
yearEveryone in the
peasant’s family did much the same work. Children began work at about the age
of three. They did simple jobs like scaring birds away from the crops. Women
worked in the fields and also looked after the home. They collected wild herbs
and fruits. They made medicines and preserved food for the winter. The women
did the spinning but the min often did the weaving. The women taught the girls
their jobs, and the men taught the boys.You can read
below about the kinds of jobs which the peasants had to do at different times
of the year.Daily life in
the Middle AgesHow the peasants
livedThe peasant’s
lives were hard and they worked long hours. But they did not work on Sundays,
and most weeks there was a holy day (holiday). On these days they went to
church, but after that they could do as they liked. Most of all, they liked
eating and drinking when there was enough food. They also liked dancing,
fighting, telling stories and playing games.How the nobles
livedMost nobles did
not have to do any real work except give orders to their servants. They spent
most of their time amusing themselves. Men and women spent a lot of the day
hunting or hawking. The fighting and training for war. The women did a lot of
embroidery. There was a lot of testing, with music and dancing in the evenings.
Several times a year there were tournaments where many knights in armor fought
each other for fun. They tried to knock each other from their horses. They did
not try to kill one another, but they often did so. The ladies judged who the
best knight was. These tournaments were good training for real fighting.Towns in the
Middle AgesThere were not
many towns in the Middle Ages. Most of them only had about 2000to5000 people. A
town did not belong to a noble as a village did. The king gave the town a charter
which said the townspeople were free and could rule themselves. The people of
the town chose a mayor and officials to rule them, but they had to obey the
king’s laws as well. The mayor’s court tried people who had done small crimes.
Twice a year the king’s judges came to the town to try people who had done big
crimes.Everybody had to
help run the town, for example, mending the roads and wells. All the men had to
take turns in keeping watch at night.Shops In the village
people had to make most of the things they wanted themselves. In the towns they
could buy many things they needed from small shops. Shops sold just one thing –
for example, shoes, bread, pots or jeweler. The owner of the shop and his
apprentices made all the things he sold. All the shops of one trade for
example, bakers, butchers, shoemakers were together in one street.EntertainmentThere was a lot
to do in the towns. There were many inns where people could drink and gamble.
Once a year the craftsmen did plays for the people, sometimes wandering
musicians, dancers, acrobats and jugglers came and played in the market –
place. They also brought news from other parts –often this was not true. And
always there were plenty of people to talk with.Life in the
towns seemed much better than life in a small village. But there were some bad
things as well.DirtThe towns were
very dirty. The people were not really any dirtier than those in the villages,
but there were more of them, and they lived closely together. This made things
much worse.The streets were
made of earth or stones, and many were less than two meters wide. The house
were built out over the street which mane the road very dark. The streets had
many deep holes which were full of dirty water. People had no toilets or
drains. They threw all their rubbish and sewage into the street. The
shopkeepers threw all of their waste into the street-rotten vegetables, animal
insides, and broken pots. Pigs, dogs and cows wandered along the streets
looking for food. Everywhere there were lots of rats.There was no
water in the houses. Most people went to the nearest stream or the moat round
the town to get water. A lot of the waste went down the streets into these
streams so that the water was full of germs. Some towns had wells, but sewage soaked
into them and made the water very bad. Rich people sometimes bought clean water
which men brought in barrels from clean wells outside the town.DiseaseThere were
always terrible diseases in the towns because of the dirt, the filthy water and
the rats. Half the babies born died before they were a year old. In a bad
plague a prater of the people died because there was no proper medicine or
doctors. At oriental times most people died before they were 40 years old.CrimeThere was a lot
of crime in the towns because people did not know one another as they did in
the little village. There were no police and the watchmen did not want any
trouble. There were many robberies and murders in the dark streets. But when
people were caught they were punished very cruelly.The guildsIf a by wanted
to be a craftsman – for example, a tailor, baker or a carpenter – he became an
apprentice when he was seven years old. His parents paid the craftsman some
money, and the boy went to live with his master for seven years. The boy had to
promise not to go to inns or to gamble, or to be naughty in any way.The master
taught the apprentice the work of his craft. At first the boy did simple jobs
like sweeping up and carrying things. Then the master showed him how to use the
tools. Sometimes he was paid ten or twenty cents a week. After four or five
years he was paid a little more because he could now do good work.When the
apprentice was fourteen or fifteen years old, he became a proper workman,
called a journeyman. He was now paid a wage of forty to fifty cents a day (the
French word for `day’ is `journey’). Sometimes he stayed with his old master,
but more often went off to work for another. He might travel from one master to
another for seven years or more, learning different ways of doing the work.Most journeymen
wanted to become master craftsmen themselves. They were not allowed to do this
until they had done a special piece of work called a masterpiece. This could be
clothes, armor, pottery or whatever their craft was. This was shown to the
other masters in the guild. If they thought it was good enough, the journeyman
could have his own shop and apprentices, and become a member of the guild.The master
craftsmen in a town formed themselves into clubs called guilds. There was a
guild for each trade- shoemakers, rope makers, jewelers, barkers, and so on.
The guild tried to help they own members to make a good living. But they also
tried to help the people of the town as well. Here are some of the ways they
did this.Markets and fairsThe below is of
a town in France
which looks the same as it did in the middle ages. See how well protected it
is. People liked living in towns because life seemed better there. When they
could get away from the villages they came to the towns. Note how the town is
full of houses inside the walls. New people coming to the town had to build
houses outside.Every town had a
market each week. The town craftsman put their goods out on tables. Peasants
came in from the countryside with fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs and fish.
The townspeople bought the fresh food, and the country people bought things
from the shops.The fairOnly ordinary
things made in the town or grown in the countryside were for sale in the weekly
market. Once a year in some places there was a huge market called a fair. Here
people could buy things from other parts of the country and from other parts of
the world.The fair lasted
a week and was held in a field outside the town. People came from 100
kilometers around to buy things. They would not get a chance to buy them again
for another year. Many of them stayed the whole week at the fair, sleeping on
the ground.Caravans with
goods came from all over Europe and from Asia
to the biggest fair. The fair itself was set out like a town with streets of
tents.There were
stalls selling beer, wine and food of all kinds. There were travelling
entertainer’s musicians, jugglers, dancing bears, puppet shows and conjurors,
and many others, to amuse the people. The fait was the most exciting week of
the year for people who could go to it.The church in
the Middle AgesAt the head of
the church was the pope, who was god’s representative on earth. He was above
all the kings and emperors. Below the pope were the archbishops and bishops in
each country. Then came the ordinary priests and then the people.HeavenThe Church
taught that people must try to get to Heaven after they died. They must do what
the Church told them: they must obey the Bible; they must go to church
services; they must be sorry for what they have done wrong; they must help
other people; they must not eat on certain days; if possible, they should go on
pilgrimages. If they did all of these things, they would go to Heaven and be
happy for ever.HellIf people did
wrong or disobeyed the Church, they would go to hell. The Church taught that
this was a terrible place below the ground ruled by the devil. The spirits of
wicked people would be tortured forever.These beliefs
gave the Church great power. If people disobeyed the Church, the Pope could
excommunicate them. That is, they would not be allowed to go to church. This
meant that when they died they would go to hell. This made most people obey the
Church. In 1077 the most powerful emperor in Europe,
Henry IV, the Holy Roman emperor, made the Pope angry. The pope made him walk
across the frozen mountains from Germany to Italy In the middle of
winter without shoes. Then the emperor was kept waiting outside the pope’s
palace for three days in the snow. Only then did the pope forgive him.It was not only
the fear of hell that made the church so powerful. People loved the church. It
was the centre of their lives. If it had not been, they would not have made
such wonderful buildings as the ones on pages 22 and 23. Do not forget that
they had no machinery, and that these great churches were made with just
hammers and spades.Help and comfortThere was no one
else to help ordinary people except the church. The priest was often the only
person in a village who could read and write. He gave people advice and helped
when they were in trouble. The church comfortable people when they were ill or
when their relations died.The centre of
village lifeThe priest was
often the leader of village. The churchyard was an important place in village
life. The people held meetings there to talk and to decide things about the
crops and animals. Often they played games in the churchyard and if the village
was big enough, the market was held there.Entertainment There was not
much to do in villages in the middle ages. The church tried to give people some
entertainment. Sometimes the priests did bible plays in the church. There were
painting on the walls and stained glass in the windows of the churches to tell
stories from the bible. The services were cheerful and friendly.HolidaysNearly every
week there was a saint’s day. This was when people thought about one particular
saint. On these days people went to church, but afterwards they could do what
they liked. This gave them breaks from the long, hard work in the fields. These
`holy days’ became our word in holidays. On some of these holy days there were
sports and games. On others there were feasts.The monasteriesIn the middle
ages many people wanted to give their whole life to god. They became monks and
nuns. They lived in monasteries and made three promises: they would never
marry, they would never have any money, and they would always obey the church.
The monks and nuns often lived very hard lives indeed. They spent all of their
time praying to god and working in the monastery or in its fields. Most of them
never left the monastery or its land.But though the
monks and nuns did not go out into the world, they did a lot for the ordinary
people.The main orders
of monks who stayed inside their monasteries were the Benedictines, who obeyed
the rule of St. Benedict, and the Augustine’s, who followed the rules of St. Augustine. The
Augustine’s been not quite as strict as the Benedictines, and sometimes were
priests in the village churches as well as monks. There were also monasteries
of nuns who followed there rules.FarmingThe monks farmed
the land all round the monastery. They did not have to obey the rules of the
manor as the other people in the village did. Because of this they could try
new crops and find out better ways of farming.Copying booksBefore printing
was invented, all books had to be copied by hand. This was done by monks and
nuns in the writing- rooms of the monasteries. Often they drew beautiful
pictures in the books around some of the important words.Looking after
travelersThere were no
hotels at this time, and any travelers could stay in special rooms in the
monasteries. They did not have to pay unless they wanted to.Looking after
the poorThe monks and
nuns gave food and clothing to poor people who came to the gates of the
monastery.HospitalsThe only
hospitals in the middle ages were in the monasteries. They were not very good
compared with hospitals today but they were all the people had.SchoolsThe only schools
were in monasteries. They taught reading, writing and Latin to boys and girls
who wanted to become monks or nuns.The friars In the 12th
century some monks felt that they could do more good if they went out instead
of staying in the monastery. Early in the 13th century several new
orders were founded. The two chief ones were the Franciscans, who followed St.
Francis of Assisi,
and the Dominicans, who followed the rules of St. Dominic. They were called the
wandering friars because they spent most of their lives travelling round the
countryside preaching, teaching and helping people who were poor or sick. They
ate what people gave them – or went hungry. They slept where they could – often
in the open air. Both orders worked among people who were not Christians, or
who did not worship Christ in what they thought was the right way.The beginnings
of IslamThe ArabsIslam began in
the 7th century AD in the country which is now Arabia.
This is one of the most difficult places in the world to live in – a land of
desert, bare mountains, burning sun and little water. The people who lived here
were Arabs. They wandered around the desert trying to find a little food for
their camels and goats. Near the coast there were some towns because it was on
the trade route from the East to the Mediterranean Sea.
The chief of these towns was Mecca.It was very
difficult for the Arabs to join together as a people because they were always
moving from place to place. For the same reason they did not have one ruler.
Instead, there were many small rules of local tribes or towns.The Arabs
worshipped many different gods. Often these were gods of water and trees as you
would expect in such a dry land. The most important shrine of the Arabs was at Mecca. It was a block of
black stone called the Kaaba. In the sacred month each year all fighting was
stooped, and many tribesmen came to Mecca.
They came to worship their own gods, and to have competitions reciting poetry.God or Allah
gave a human being his message of change for society. The man he chose to tell
people his commands was Muhammad (Peace Be upon Him).Muhammad (PBUH)Muhammad (PBUH)
was born into a poor but noble family about AD 570. His father died before he
was born and his mother died when he was six years old. He was brought up first
by his grandfather and later by his uncle.A wealthy
business women, Khedival, employed him to supervise her caravan of merchandise.
Impressed by his honestly, she sent him a marriage proposal which he accepted.Muhammad (PBUH)
the prophetMuhammad (PBUH)
thought a lot about ways to reform or change society. He often went into the
desert to think. When he was about 40, while meditating in a cave, the angel
Gabriel came to him to tell him God’s message. God had now made him his prophet
or messenger. From time to time, for the next twenty years, the angel came with
more words from God, or as Islam calls Him, Allah.The Koran
teaches that there had been many prophets or teachers in the past that had come
to tell people what God wanted. Moses, Abraham, David and Jesus were some of
these, but he, Muhammad (PBUH), was the last. The Koran
When Muhammad
(PBUH) died in AD 632 all of the saying the angel had told him were written
down in one book. It is called the Koran, and it is the holy book of Islam. It
is so holy that it must never be put on the ground or touches anything dirty.The Koran is
decorated with beautiful writings and designs.The teaching of
IslamMuhammad was the
prophet of Islam, which means `to obey God’. There is only one God, who is
called Allah.For the next ten
years Muhammad preached Islam in Mecca.
Some people be lived him but other people in Mecca became very angry because they were
being asked to change their ways. His life was now in danger, and at God’s
command he decided to leave Mecca.
He migrated to the oasis of Yasrab, 300 kilometers away, on the invitation of
its people. Yasrab then came to be known as medina or `the city of Muhammad’.This migration
is called the hegira and it is the year 1 in the Islamic calendar. The people
of Medina be
lived him and soon he had many followers. Some of the tribes in the desert
joined him and in AD 630 he entered Mecca
when the gates of the city were opened to receive him.At once he
destroyed all the idols in the shrine of the kaaba and said that it was now the
holy place of Allah. Many other tribes now joined Islam and Muhammad had even
more followers. When he died two years later, in AD 632, almost all of Arabia had accepted Islam.The teaching of
IslamThe teaching of
Islam is based on five `pillars’.They are:·
Everyone must believe that there is one
God, and that Muhammad is his prophet.
·
Everyone, wherever they are in the
world, must turn to face Mecca
and pray at least five times a day – daybreak, midday, late afternoon, sunset
and after sunset.
·
Everyone must give to the poor. A
certain part of a person’s money has to be given, but good people give more.
·
In the holy month of Ramadan Muslims
must not eat or drink anything between sunrise and sunset.
·
Everyone must can do so must go on a
pilgrimage to Mecca
once in a lifetime. They must gather, and pray at Arafat and worship at kaaba,
and if they can, sacrifice a sheep.
The mosqueThe centre of
worship Islam is the mosque.In a large
mosque there is a courtyard where the men can meet and talk. There is water
there because they must wash their face, hands and feet before they pray. The
main room of the mosque has no furniture, but it may have rugs on the floor
because the men kneel down to worship. There is a decorated opening in the side
of the room facing Mecca.
This is so that the worshippers will know which way to turn when they pray.Outside the
mosque is a tower called a minaret? One man, the ‘muezzin’, goes up the tower
five times a day to call the people to prayer. Whatever they are doing, or
wherever they are, they should then stop and pray.Women are
allowed to pray in a mosque, but more often, they pray at home. In many Islamic
countries women must cover their bodies from head to feel when they go out of
doors. They often also wear a vial over their faces.The spread of
IslamMuhammad said
that the religion of Islam must be spread. After his death, the armies of Islam
spread in all directions. They conquered countries very quickly indeed. By AD
800 all the land from Spain,
through North Africa to northern India
and central Asia, was in the hands of island.
It was mot and empire ruled by one man, but soon broke up into separate states.
Everyone in these countries, however, believed in Islam, and that joined them
together.Islam in EuropeThe Islamic
armies crossed into Europe from Africa about
AD 710. They landed in Spain
at the place we today call Gibraltar. They
quickly conquered Spain and
moved into France.The Battle of Tours,
AD 732The people of
Europe were so busy fighting each other at this time that the Islamic army was
quickly able to reach northern France.
Suddenly the European kings realized the danger and joined Charles Martel, king
of the franks, to fight the invaders. At the battle of tours in AD 732, the
Islamic forces were completely defeated, and retreated to Spain. Spain belonged
to Islamic for another five centuries. The Islamic rules of Spain were called Moors and under them, Spain became the most civilized country in Europe.Spain under
the Moors
All of the many
different people in Spain
lived together without fighting.The Arabs in Spain taught a lot to the rest of Europe. The Europeans learned about medicine,
mathematics, science and astronomy; about navigating ships; about new ways of
painting and building; about poetry and writing and music; about thinking. The
best universities in Europe were in Spain, and scholars travelled there
to study. Then they took these new ideas back to their own lands.Although the
Arabs were finally driven from Spain
in the 15th century, their influence still remains in many ways.
Much Spanish music and dancing is still Arabic peoples of North
Africa. Islam in AsiaIn the 7th
century AD the Arab armies conquered Persia. Some then went on to
capture Afghanistan and
northern India.
Others went further into Central Asia towards China. In AD 751 they defeated the
Chinese army in a great battle at Talas. This ended the power of the Tang
Dynasty in Central Asia. All of the lands
captured by the Arab armies in the 7th and 8th centuries
(except Spain)
have kept the Islamic religion.Islam in PersiaIn the middle of
the 8th century, the Arabs began to lose their power, and Persia became
the leader of Islam. For the next few centuries Persia was perhaps the greatest
civilization in the world. It had wonderful cities and buildings and great
gardens. There were many writers, poets, musicians, artists, scientists and
inventors.The civilization
of Islam I: science and medicineIslam began at
the main crossroads of the world. Trade routes by land and sea went in all
directions from Arabia-to Europe, Africa, India,
Persia, Central Asia and China.All round Arabia
were the countries where the civilizations of Persia,
Byzantine Greece, Egypt and India had grown
up. Further away, the Arabs knew something about China,
Central Asia and Europe. They learned
something from all of these peoples but also gave the world a lot through their
own civilization.In the 9th
century many ancient Greek and Indian books about science, medicine,
mathematics and astronomy were translated into Arabic. Now they could be read
by scholars from Spain to Central Asia because Arabic was spoken in all these
places. In this way the information from the past spread over all the parts of
the world that were known at the time.MathematicsThe Arabs found
out about fractions and decimals. They used numbers that were much easier to
use than the clumsy Roman and Greek numbers. This was a great help as trade
increased and merchants had to do a lot of mathematics. We still use numbers
like this, with a zero, today.AstronomyThe Arabs
studied the stars and made maps of the sky. They gave names to the groups of
stars. They invented instruments lied the astrolabe which helped sailors to
find their way at sea. It also helped Islamic people to find out where Mecca was so that they
could pray in the right direction.MedicineMedicine was
perhaps the most important science of the Arabs. Their books were used in Europe for the next five centuries. They studied the
different ways the ancient Greek and Indian doctors treated diseases. They
copied the different herbs and other drugs that had been used in ancient times
and made up new ones. They cut up dead people to find out how the different
parts of the body worked.MachinesThe Arabs
invented many machines. Some of these were for amusement only but others were
useful. Ideas lied gearwheels later became very important in engineering in Europe.The 13th century
drawing below shows a machine for lifting water. It is driven by either a
water-wheel or an ox. The strange things with spikes are gearwheels. See if you
can find out how it works.The drawing on
the right below is of a 13th century automatic wash-basin. The
‘robot’ pours out the water and then hands the person a towel. Your teacher
will show you how it worked.The civilization
of Islam 2: building and the artsBuildingsMost Islamic
people lived in very simple homes but there were many very beautiful mosques
and tombs. Often these buildings had domes. Their outsides were often covered
with brightly colored tiles. with words from the Koran in different styles of
writing. Sometimes the tiles were patterns of lines or status as these were
forbidden by Islam. Inside the mosques were courtyards with many
pillars and arches. Many of these were decorated with colored tiles in patterns.GardensMuslims loved
gardens with many flowers, pools of water and trees. The best thing that many
people could think of was to sit in a shaded garden listening to poetry or
stories being told to the sound of music.Poetry, writing
and musicMuslims,
especially in Persia and India, loved
listening to poetry, stories and music. Arabic is a very good language for
poetry and there were many famous writers.The CrusadesJerusalem is a holy city for Muslims,
Christians and the Jews. In AD 638 it was captured by the soldiers of Islam.
For the next 400 years, however, Christian pilgrims could go to their holy
place without any trouble. Then, in 1071, fierce Islamic soldiers, called the
Saracens, conquered the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
They stopped Christian pilgrims going to Jerusalem.
In 109 the Pope
called for all Christian knights in Europe to fight the Saracens and recapture Jerusalem. For the next
200 years there were many wars between the European and the Saracens. These
wars were called the Crusades because the badge of the Christian knights was a
cross. The Latin word for cross is ‘crux’Knights and
foot-soldiers came from France Germany and England. Some of the knights went
because they thought that was what God wanted. But others went to get money or
land or for adventure.The First
Crusade (1095-9)In the First
Crusade the Crusaders captured the Holy
City, and set up a kingdom of Jerusalem.
They quarreled about who was going to be its king, and then who was going to
rule the other cities. Most of these rulers were greedy and cruel, and thought
only of money and power.SaladinIn 1170 Islam
found a new leader in Saladin. He was gentle and kind but a wonderful general.
In 1187 Saladin’s army recaptured Jerusalem.
In 1199 the Third Crusade set out from Europe
to try to capture it again. It was led by King Richard the Lion heart of England.The Crusaders
got to within a few miles of Jerusalem.
Then Saladin offered Richard an honorable peace. But Richard broke all of his
promises to Saladin, and had to go back home. Jerusalem stayed in the hands of the
Saracens, but the other cities in the Kingdom were under Christian rulers for
another hundred years.The results of
the CrusadesThe Crusades
made the first real bridge between the East and the West. The Christians lived
for 200 years among the Arab people. The Arabs were great travelers and
merchants. They knew all about India
and china, and travelled there to trade. So the Europeans learned for the first
time about the great civilizations in the east, and the new gods that came from
them.What the
Europeans learned from the ArabsThe Europeans
called Palestine the Holy
Land because Jesus Christ had lived there. They learned many new
things from the Arabs when they went to the Holy Land
to fight in the Crusades.Science and
mathematicsThe Europeans
copied the maps of the Arabs which were much better than their own. They
learned about the ship’s compass and the astrolabe, which helped sailors to
find their way at sea. All of these things were important in the voyages of
discovery (page 78)The Europeans
also began to use Arabic numbers. You saw on page 60 that these were much
easier to use Arabic numbers. You saw on page 60 that these were much easier to
use than the difficult Roman numbers. They helped merchants to trade.The Europeans
learned how to make much stronger steel for weapons. This made wars more
dangerous.Things to make
life betterThe Arabs showed
the Europeans many things which made life better. There were carpets from
Central Asia; silks from China;
cotton cloth from India;
glass mirrors; the first violins, and the games of chess and playing cards.
They found out about new things to eat: apricots; lemons; rice; millet; ginger;
sesame, and, most important, sugar. Before this European used honey to made
things sweet.All these things
made European nobles want to live in more comfortable homes instead of their
damp, cold castles. They wanted to spend money on things which made life
better.The Europeans
wanted more of these good things. This led to more trade between East and West.
They wanted to see these new countries for themselves. Soon a few explorers
began to go to the East (page 80).Paper and
printingThe Arabs
learned how to make paper from the Chinese in the 8th century. At
first they brought sheets of paper to Europe from China. Then in 1100, the first
paper-mill was built by the Chinese how to made wooden blocks for printing.
These printed a whole page at a time and made books much cheaper than the ones
written by hand on parchment. This helped to spread learning.BuildingsThe Arabs built
their castles in a circle. There were two or three rings of walls, one inside
the other. If the enemy captured one wall, they had to start again on the next
one. These castles were much stronger than the European ones, and many nobles
who had been on the Crusades copied them.The Arabs also
taught the Europeans how to made windmills. Before this the Europeans had used
water-mills, which had to be near a river. Now they could put their windmills
anywhere.Europe begins to
trade with AsiaThe Europeans
began to make contact with Asia from the 12th
century onwards. At first there was only a small amount of trade. Trading on a
large scale did not begin until after the voyages of discovery in the 15th
century (see page 88) Ships then sailed all the way from Europe to India and China. AT this time, too, the
European ships also sailed to the West, and discovered America.At first
Americans did not seem to have much that Europe
wanted except gold and silver. But Asia was
very different. The Europeans wanted the silks, the spices, the cottons, the
perfumes and the jewels very much indeed. These were the very things that
started the voyages of discovery.Asia was very
different from the America
is other ways as well. Most of it was highly civilized. The countries were well
organized, and their soldiers well trained. Their armies could not be defeated
by a few hundred Europeans with muskets, crossbows and cannon as they had been
in America,At first there
was no question of taking the lands of the Asian rulers as colonies. So the
Europeans got permission to set up forts where they could trade and store goods
until their ships arrived from Europe.
Sometimes the rulers were pleased to see the traders and let them do this for
nothing. Sometimes the Europeans had to pay a lot of money.The Europeans
did not have many things that the people of Asia
wanted. They did have fine woolen cloth; guns, cannon and other weapons; metal
hoods of all kinds; horses and hawks (especially for India),
and slaves picked up in Africa (mainly for America). However, the people of
Asia wanted silver more than anything else, and the Europeans had a lot of this
from America.India and South-east AsiaThe Portuguese
began to set up trading posts soon after 1500 on the west coast of India. At first
they set up schools to teach Hindu children Portuguese, and encouraged
Portuguese men to marry Indian women. Indians became high officials in their
taking posts. In 1510, however, under their leader Albuquerque
captured the state of Goa (see the map on page
70). They forced the Indians to drive out other nations who had been setting up
trading posts. More Portuguese set up trading posts in the islands now called Indonesia. In
the middle of the 16th century Spain
captured the Philippines
and traded there.But the
Portuguese were not strong in the 16th century to keep out the
Dutch, French and British. These countries all had strong navies and took over
some of the Portuguese trading posts. The British and the France were most
interested in India,
and the Dutch in South- East Asia.ChinaA Portuguese
ship reached the cost of china in 1514 and was allowed to trade there. The
Portuguese were so cruel to the Chinese that, six years letter, the emperor
stopped them trading. But the Chinese merchants made so much money, and the
Chinese people so wanted European technical things, that trading started again
in the 1540s. The Portuguese, with their big ships and cannon, helped to defeat
the Chinese pirates along the cost, and the emperor allowed them to build a
trading post at Macau. Later, some Dutch,
British and Spanish merchants were allowed to trade in China. All of Europe wanted Chinese goods – skills, porcelain, lacquer
work, paintings, furniture and after the middle of the 17th century,
tea. In the 18th century the Europeans became so greedy in trading
that they treated the Chinese badly, and paid them too little for their goods.JapanThe Portuguese
reached Japan
about 1540. The Japanese saw European guns and cannon, and quickly began to
copy them. Soon afterwards merchants and missionaries arrived in Japan to trade
and to try to teach the people Christianity (see page 113). Spanish, Dutch and
British merchants came later, but in 1640 all foreigners were driven out. Japan closed
her doors to Europeans but did allow some Chinese to trade. They also allowed a
few Dutch merchants to stay on an artificial island in Nagasaki Bay.
But these trades were completely under the control of the Japanese, and were
not allowed to know what was happening on the mainland. This lasted for the
next 200 years. Then, in 1853, an American fleet sailed to Japan and
forced the emperor to open the country to outside traders.The Mongols open
up China
to the WestOver 2000 years
ago goods and ideas already travelled to and fro along the Silk Road, From Asia
to the Middle East and Europe. Silks from China, and spices and perfumes from other parts
of Asia, were sold in ancient Rome.
Some ideas of building and decoration spread from the eastern Mediterranean to
northern China.In the 7th
and 8th centuries AD, the Arab armies conquered all of the land
marked green on the map below. They would not let people travel along the Silk
Road so that trade and the exchange of ideas between eastern Asia
and the West died down.The MongolsFor hundreds of
years many tribes of wild people called Mongols had lived to the north of China. They
wandered with their tents and flocks of sheep and goats over hundreds of miles
of poor grasslands. They were very fierce and cruel soldiers who fought on
horseback with powerful bows. They moved so quickly that they could beat almost
any ordinary army of foot soldiers. The picture below on the left shows some
Mongols in their camp. Can you see what each of the men is doing?Genghis KhanIn 1206 all of
the Mongol tribes came together under one leader who called himself Genghis
Khan. In a few years he had captured all of the land from northern China to the Black Sea.
His generals wanted to kill all of the people and destroy all the towns they
had captured. But a Chinese general who had joined Genghis Khan put a small tax
on land, salt, iron and everything that was sold. These taxes brought him over
17000 kilograms of silver, 80000 rolls of silk and 4000000 sacks of corn a
year.Kublai Khan,
1216-94Genghis Khan’s
grandson, Kublai Khan, became emperor in 1260 and made his capital at Beijing. He conquered
southern China
and set up the Yuan Dynasty. His empire was so big it took two years to travel
from one side to the other.Kublai Khan very
much admired scholars. He encouraged missionaries of different religions to
come to his kingdom. Only a few Christian priests came but Kublai brought in
many Buddhist monks from Tibet.He encouraged
writing, painting and science in China,
and had a great observatory built in Beijing.But most of all
he liked meeting people from different countries and encouraged merchants from
the West to come again to China
along the Silk Road. Goods and ideas began to
pass from Europe to Asia once more. The most
famous of the merchants who came to China
from Europe at this time were the Polos from Venice. You can read their story on the next
page.The Polos: the
West first comes to the EastIn 12398 an
Italian nobleman from Venice was in prison in Genoa. He had been a
commander on a warship. He told the story of his exciting life to another
Italian in the prison, who wrote it all down. The man who told the story was
Marco Polo.Maffeo and
Niccolo PoloNiccolo Polo
(Marco’s father) and his brother Maffeo were merchants from Venice. About 1264 they went trading to Bokhara. There they met some min who had come from Kublai
Khan, the Mongol emperor to go back with them to go back with them to the
emperor in Beijing, over 4000 kilometers away. It took a year for the Polos to reach Beijing. The emperor was
very pleased with what they told him about the West. He thought it seemed very
civilized. At last he sent them back to Italy to ask the Pope to send a
hundred. Christian scholars to china to teach his people. The Polos reached the
West again in 1269. But the Pope would not send the scholars to China. The
Polos went back to China,
taking Niccole’s son, Marco, with them. He was just 21 when they reached Beijing. The emperor was
sad that there were no Christian scholars, and asked the Buddhists to teach his
people instead.Marco PoloMarco Polo was
very clever. He studied the languages of China. The emperor was delighted
with him, and made him an important official. Marco travelled through many
parts of china and South-east Asia. He saw
that Kublai Khan loved to hear about the strange things that people did in
distant countries. So he wrote when he got back to Beijing. This pleased the emperor very much,
and the Polos, especially Marco, became more and more important in China.The Polos return
to the WestAfter seventeen
years, the Polos wanted to return to the West, but the emperor did not want to
let them go. At last he said they could return if they would tade a Chinese
princess to Persia
to be married. They all went by sea, round the coast of South-east Asia and India to Persia. The polos arrived back in Venice in 1295. In 1298
war broke out between the two great trading cities of Venice
and Genoa.
Marco polo was captured in a battle and, as we saw at the beginning, ended up
in prison. However, he was let free after a year, and died in 1324.What the Polos
didThe Polos were
the first people from the West to explore Central and South-east Asia and China. They
showed the people of Europe that there was a great civilization in China, better than the one in Europe.
They showed all of the wonderful things the East had to trade. They showed that
the trade routes through central Asia could
carry many goods. They tayght the people of Europe that the people in Asia were ordinary human beings, not strange monsters as
many people thought.Marco Polo’s
book made other men want to travel to East Asia.
Some were monks who went for religion;some were merchants who went for trade,
and some were people who went just for adventure and to find out what these
far-off lands were like.The voyages of
discovery 1The map of the
world on the right was made in Europe in 1457.
At this time, people believed that the earth was flat and round like a plate.
If they went too far they fell over the edge. People had no idea there were
lands like Australia and America. A few
men like Marco polo had been to China,
but they did not really know where it was. They did not really understand many
of the things they saw there. When they got back to Europe,
they told strange stories of what they had seen. The people in Europe believed the stories they were told.Trade routes
from the EastIn the 15th
century, Europeans did not know much about the world, but some goods did come
from Asia to the West. There were silks from China; cotton, perfumes and jewels from India;
spices from South- east Asia. Some of these goods were carried all the way on
the backs of animals. Some went by small Arab ships to the Red Sea and then
overland to the Mediterranean. Then they went
on again in more ships. The journey form China
to Europe and back often took three years. And
it was always very dangerous.The most
dangerous part was the eastern end of the Mediterranean.
You sow on page 66 how these lands were captured in the 11th century
by a fierce race of Muslims called Turks. All trade now had to go throgh their
lands to reach Europe. The turks put heavy
taxes on the traders, and this made the goods very expensive. Worse still, the Turks could cut the trade routes
altogether if they wanted, so that no goods at all would get to Europe.Travelers’ talesThe pictures
above are taken from a book printed in 1444. They show some of the people
travelers said they had seen in Asia. Some had
only one leg and one foot. The foot was so big that the people used it to
shelter from the sun. The travelers said there were other people who had only
one eye in the middle oftheir heads at all and had their faces in their chests.
The travelers brought back cotton cloth. They said that it came from sheep that
grew on trees like flowers.The
voyages of discoveryThe Europeans
wanted more goods from Asia. They did not like
paying taxes to the Turks and Arabs because this made the goods expensive. They
wanted to find a way to India
and China
which did not go through Islamic lands. There were many merchants who wanted to
make money y by trading with the East. The Europeans had found out from the
Arabs new things about ships and sailing which made it easier to go further
from home across the seas. You can some of these on pages 68. There was also a
new spirit of adventure in Europe. Men wanted
to learn more new goods.The voyages of
discovery IIWhy the voyages
took placeIn the 15th
century a change was taking place in Europe.
The nobles did not fight one another so much. They did not need their strong,
cold castles to protect themselves. They wanted more comfortable homes and a
better life. They wanted more fine silk and cotton clothes. They wanted more
spices, jeweler, perfumes and carpets. They wanted all of these things to be
cheaper.Henry the
NavigatorThe first
voyages of discovery were made by ships from Portugal
and Spain.
These were good countries for trading because they faced the Atlantic
Ocean. A Portuguese prince, Henry the Navigator, was a great
explorer. He encouraged his sailors to go further across the sea, away from the
land. He wanted to get more trade for his country.Bartholomew DiazIn 1487 the
Portuguese sailor south, keeping close of Africa.
Every day he thought the ship would fall over the edge of the world. At last he
saw sailing round the ‘bottom’ of Africa. He
thought he could sail on to India
but his men made him go back to Portugal.Christopher
ColumbusIn 1492 the
Italian sailor Columbus, sailing in a Spanish ship, set out to reach India by
sailing to the west. He believed the world was a ball. He did not know that America was between Europe and Asia.
After three months he reached an island. He thought it was near India. These
islands are still called the West Indies. Columbus never knew that
he had found a new continent.Vasco da GamaIn 1489 da Gama,
another Portuguese sailor, sailed round the south of Africa.
But, unlike Diaz, he kept going northwards. After a few weeks he met some Arab
sailors who had come from India.
They showed him the way to India.
From there, sailors who had come from Europe by sea could go on to South- East
Asia and China.
The power of the Arabs over the trade routes had been broken.Ferdinand
MagellanIn 1519 Magellan
sailed from Portugal
with three ships and 234 men. He sailed round the south of America, across the Pacific and Indian Oceans,
and round the south of Africa. Magellan and
most of his men died on the voyage. But in 1522 one ship and eighteen half-
dead men got back to Spain.
They had proved that the world really was a ball, and that people could get to
the East by sailing west.The next person
to do this was the English sailor Francis Drake, who set out in 1578. He
arrived back in London
in 1580. On his journey he captured Spanish treasure ships and claimed California for Queen
Elizabeth 1.Life on board a
medieval shipThe voyages of
discovery were made by tough men in very small ships.The leadersThe ieaders and
officers of the ships were usually noblemen. They were trying to make a lot of
money. Some were looking for adventure. Often rich merchants paid for the ship.The sailorsThere were only
a few real sailors. Most of the crew was criminals. Some were trying to escape
from the law. Some had been captured by the sailors. They were made very drunk
and taken on board. When they woke up they were out at sea. Life on the ship
was very hard, and often very cruel. But the men soon became good sailors.The shipsThe ships were
small and uncomfortable. Columbus’s
ship, the Santa Mari, was only 20 metres long and weighed 100 tonnes.
The star Ferry in Hong Kong is 33 metres long
and weighs 160 tonnes.Pigafetta’s
notebookMagellan (see
page 81) had a secretary called Pigafetta. He wrote down in a note book many of
the things that happened on the voyage.
Pigafetta was one of the eighteen men who got back to Spain at the
end of the three-year voyage round the world. These are some of the things he
wrote.The voyageNovember 1520We were three
months and twenty days without getting water and fresh food. We are had
biscuits. These were now only a powder full of crawling maggots. It was soaked
with the urine of rats. We drank yellow water which had been rotten for many
days. We ate the leather from the ship’s mast. We soaked it in the sea for four
or five days. When it was soft we cooked it. We also ate sawdust from the wood
of the ship. Some sailors caught the rats on board ship and sold them for half
a ducat [20] each, but we could not get many …….Traveller’s
talesThe King of
China is the greatest in the world. If a noble disobeys him, the noble is
skinned alive. His skin is dried in the sun and then stuffed with straw. It is
than placed with the head down in the chief square. The hands are fastened over
the head so that the noble’s body is bowing to the king. When the king of China wants to
see his people, he rides round the place in a huge model of a peacock with six
of his wives. He sometimes rides in a big model of a snake. He can look through
a glass window in the chest of the snake …Walking leavesWe found an
island with a bay which was very good for minding our ship. We stayed there for
forty-two days. We found tree they walk away. On both sides of the leaf near
the stem they have two little feet. They have no blood. But if you touch them
they run away. I kept one in a box for nine days. When I opened the box the
leaf ran round and round. I think they eat air …Trading on the
islandWe bought many
cloves at this island. For four brazes [about seven meters] of ribbon they gave
us one bahar [about 46 kilograms] of cloves. At last we had no more goods to
trade. Then one sailor gave his cloak for some cloves. Another gave his coat
and another shirt as well as the rest of his clothes …The
conquistadoresThe drawing
below is supposed to show the first European, Christopher Columbus, landing in
the West Indies in 1492. The Amerindians are
bringing him presents because they thought he was a god. When the Spaniards saw
that the Amerindians had lots of gold, they became determined to conquer the
mainland of America.The Aztec and
Inca empiresIn the 15th
century, Central America was part of the Aztec
empire. The west coast of South America
belonged to the Inca Empire. Both these peoples were very civilized in some
ways, but uncivilized in others. They had great stone cities, good roads and
bridges, but they had never discovered the wheel. They had no metals except
gold, silver and copper.Their weapons
were wooden ‘swords’ with sharp stone blades. The Aztecs had a simple kind of
picture writing, but the Incas had none at all.The Aztecs were
often very cruel. Every year they killed thousands of prisoners to please their
gods. The Incas were not as cruel as the Aztecs.Cortes and the
Aztec empireIn 1519 a
Spanish nobleman, Hernando Cortes, landed in what is now Mexico with a
small army of 600 men, seven small cannon and thirteen horses. An Amerindian
tribe who hated the Aztecs joined his army. An Aztec princess who had been sold
as a solve to this tribe was given to Cortes. He called her Marina and she was very important to the
Spaniards. She spoke the Amerindian languages and knew their customs. She
helped the Spaniards to plan their battles against the Aztecs.The Aztecs had
never seen guns or horses before. They were very afraid of the horses. They
thought the rider and the horse were just one animal.Cortes was
helped by disease. Some of his men had measles and smallpox. These diseases
were not known in America.
About half the Amerindians died of them.In 1532 Cortes
captured the Aztec capital. It was built on an island in a lake. It is now
called Mexico City.
Soon the whole Aztec empire was a Spanish colony.Pizarro and the
IncasIn 1532 another
Spanish nobleman, Francisco Pizarro, sailed from Panama to capture the Inca empire.
He took 200 men, some gunes and horses. He conquered the Inca empire and was
very cruel indeed. He captured the Inca king who offered the Spaniards as much
gold as they wanted. When they had taken the gold they murdered the king. the
Inca people were made into slaves to get gold for the Spaniards to send back to
Europe.The Portuguese
in AmericaThe Spanish were
more interested in exploring America.
The Portuguese were more interested in trading with the East. But the
Portuguese did think they should have some land in America. They asked the Pope to
settle the matter. He said they could have the Part of South America which is
now Brazil.
The Portuguese did not find any gold there. They ruled Brazil until
1822.The effects of
the voyages of discovery: the New WorldThe voyages of
discovery were mainly made to get more silks and spices from the East. But in
trying to find a new way to Asia, the European sailors discovered America by
accident. In the end, this was far more important than finding a way by sea to
the East.PlantsAmerica was cut
off from the rest of the world by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
There which no one outside America
had seen before? They were tobacco, maize, tomatoes, Potatoes, peanuts, cocoa
(for chocolate) and rubber. People in Europe
loved tobacco and chocolate at once. soon many of them were drinking of eating
chocolate and smoking pipes, but cigar- ettes were not used for another 350
years. After a few years they began to grow maize and potatoes. Potatoes were
very good for poor people because they grew easily. People thought that
tomatoes were poisonous, and did not grow them for many years.
The Europeans
found Amerindians in South America playing
with balls made of something they had never seen before. It was rubber. These
balls bounced, unlike European ones, which were made of wood or leather. But no
one could find a use for rubber for nearly 300 years. Then, in the 19th
century, it was used to make waterproof clothes and boots.Gold and silverThe Europeans
knew all about gold and silver, of course, but they had never seen so much as
there was in Central and South America. The
Amerindians there made Plates, cups and even cooking things out of silver
because they had not discovered iron. The Spanish took all of the silver and
gold they could find, often killing the Amerindians to get it. Then they forced
the Amerindians to word in the mines getting more and more precious metrals.The power of SpainAlmost all of
the silver and gold from Central and South America went to Spain. This
made Spain the richest and
most powerful country in Europe for a hundred
years. She had the biggest army, the biggest navy and the greatest treasures.
As well as all the land in America,
the Spanish emperor ruled Portugal,
the Netherlands, Belgium, much of Italy and Parts of France. The
picture below shows the Spanish ships in a great battle (in 1571) in the
Mediter ranean near Greece.
The Spainsh won the battle and stopped the Islamic Aravs from moving into Europe.Before America was discovered, coins in Europe were worth as much as the gold or silver they were
made from. Now that there was so much gold and silver, the coins were worth
less. Merchants wanted to make the same profit so they charged more for their
money, so they wanted more wages. Then the merchants put up their prices again,
and the workers wanted yet more wages. This quick rise in wages and prices is
called inflation. Between 1500 and 1550 prices and wages in Europe
went up ten times.SlavesThe Spanish
brought many brought many European diseases like smallpox to America. These
diseases were much worse for the Amerindians because they had not had them
before. Within a few years, three-quarters of the people on the Inca and Aztec
empires were dead. There were now not enough workers to get all of the silver
the Spanish wanted form the mines. So they began to America as slaves. Spanish,
Portuguese, Dutch and English merchants made great for tunes selling slaves in America. Many
people in America
today are descendants of these slaves.The effects of
the voyages of discovery: the sea road to the EastThe discovery of
the sea route ro the East had a great effect on Europe.
A ship could hundreds of times as many goods as a horse or camel going by land.
This meant that there was more trade, lower prices and new kings of goods. it
also meant that people began to build bigger and faster ships.Spices and silksThe search for
spices and silks was the main reason for the voyages of discovery. In the
Middle Ages both of these had seen very expensive indeed, and only rich people
could buy them. Now much more of them came to Europe.
Fine cotton cloth also came from India. Because all of these things
were a little cheaper, more people could afford them. In the 16th
century clothes became very elaborate, as you can see below. Many perfumes came
from the East too, and both men and women put scent on their clothes, their
hair and their bodies. Perhaps this was to cover up the smell of their bodies,
for even the nobles did not bath more than once every month of two.New goodsMerchants usually
had extra room in their ships when they had bought all the goods like spices
and cloth they wanted. To fill up the space, they often brought back new goods
which people in Europe had not seen before.
The most important of these were tea from China
and coffee form East Africa. Soon there were
places in all the cities of Europe where
people could drink tea and coffee.ColoniesThe Amerindians
did not have very good weapons, and the tribes would not join together to
fight. The Europeans could beat them easily and take their lands. But in Asia there were strong emperors with powerful armies. The
Europeans could not defeat them. At first the merchants were allowed to set up
trading stations. However, as soon as they felt strong enough, they began to
conquer parts of the land as colonies. Sometimes they made an agreement with
the ruler to help him fight his enemies in return for land. France, England,
Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal
all wanted these colonies, so that there were wars between these countries, especially
between England and France.Fragile goodsIt had been very
difficult to carry goods like porcelain and furniture on the backs of animals
along the land route. Most of them would be broken long before they reached Europe. Now they could be carried safely in ships.
Chinese and Japanese porcelain and lacquer work began to come to Europe, where it sold for very high prices. Carpets and
some furniture from Asia were brought back to
make the house of rich people more comfortable and beautiful.New ideasThe sailors and
merchants brought back new ideas about painting, decoration, building and
thinking from Asia to Europe. Some western
ideas and science reached China.
The picture below shows the observatory in Beijing which was built by the Christian missionaries
in 17th century. People in Europe
began to know a lot more about the world they lived in. They realized finally
that the world was round. They found out that many of the stories they had
heard about monsters and strange people (like those on page 79) were not true.
They realized that people in distant countries were ordinary human beings, even
if their customs were different.The RenaissanceLook at the
pictures below. They show buildings or paintings which all come from Western Europe. The two on the left were made of painted
in the first half of the 15th century. The ones on the right belong
to the end of the 15th century or the early 16th century.
What differences can you see between them?These
differences were caused by a big change which took place about this time. It
was called the Renaissance, which means the rebirth of leering.We saw in
earlier chapters that the great civilization of ancient Rome
died out almost completely in Western Europe after the 6th century
AD Europe went into the Dark Ages and only the
Christian Church kept learning alive in a few places like the monasteries.
Through the Middle Ages civilization began to grow very slowly again, but the
Catholic Church controlled almost everything that was taught. Then, suddenly, in
the mid 15th century, came the great change in learning, painting,
sculpture, books, science, medicine, mathematics, and building and indeed, of a
great quarrel in the Christian Church called the Reformation. This split the Western Church into two parts: Catholic and
Protestant. The Renaissance, which began about 500 years ago, was in some ways
the beginning of the modern world.The birthplace
of the RenaissanceThe renaissance
began in the city states of northern Italy,
especially Florence.
The drawing at the bottom of the page was made about 1480 when many changes of
the Renaissance had taken place. The photograph on the right is the same city
today. It was taken from the hill marked X on the drawing. You can see that
some of the buildings are still standing after more than 500 years. There is
the feat church with the dome; there is the old palace with the tall, square
tower; there are the bridges. The third from the left in the 1480 drawing still
has shops and houses on it. Millions of tourists go to Florence each year to see where the
Renaissance began.Why the
Renaissance took placeThe cities of
northern Italy
were the great trading towns of the Middle Ages. The silks and spices from the
East came to Italy to be
sent on to the rest of Europe. The princes who
ruled the city-states, and many of the nobles and merchants who lived in them,
became very rich in deed. They wanted to show how rich they were, and to have
more beautiful homes, paintings clothes statues jewellery and books than the
others. They paid artists, artists, architects, jewellers, sculptors and
sculptors and scholars to do this for them.Among the most
famous were Raphael (1483-15200), Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Leonardo da
Vinci (1452-1519).The artists and
architectsIn the mid 15th
century, many architects and artists of these city-states began to look at the
remains of ancient Rome.
Roman buildings with their columns, arches and domes were all over Italy. The
architects and artists studied the Roman statues which looked just like real people.
The scholars began to read some of the ancient Greek and Roman books.The
Church did not like this
very much because they said the ancient people were not Christian. But the
scholars found out many things which seemed to say that the Church was not always
right.The capture of Constantinople In 1453 the
Islamic Turks captured the Byzantine city of Constantinople. The Christian scholars there
had always studied some of the old Greek books. Now they left Constantinople
to get away from the Turks. They went to Italy and took with them the
ancient papers and many Arabs books. You will remember that the Arab scholars
had copied many Greek books about medicine and science and had written more of
their own. The scholars in the West suddenly had many more books to study. As
they read, they found out that many of the things they had be lived seemed to
be wrong.The printing
pressAbout 1450 a
German invented the printing press. The Chinese had used this for hundreds of
years, but this was the first time it had been known in Europe.
The idea spread quickly, and now scholars could print books much more quickly
and more cheaply than copying them by hand. More scholars could read about what
the Greeks and Romans had thought. All over Europe people could read the ideas
of the new scholars of Italy.They began to
ask questions on all subjects, from art to religion and science to politics.
Many thinkers said that the Church was wrong to spend so much money and effort
on men and women who were dead. People who were alive were much more important,
they said, and life should be made better for them.Renaissance
buildingBuildingThe rich princes
and nobles of the Italian city states wanted new palaces and houses to show how
important they were. They also wanted to build new churches to please God - and
to show everyone what good lives they led.The architects
studied the remains of the ancient Roman buildings which were all were Italy. There
were temples, aqueducts, markets and many others. They studied how to make the
arches, the pillars, the domes, the steps and the other things the ancient
Romans had used so much. The Renaissance architects planned new buildings with
many of these things in them.The drawing
below on the left is of a Roman temple built in the first century AD. The
picture on the right is of a church of
St. Peter in Rome, built nearly 1500 years later.The photograph
on the left at the bottom of the page shows part of the wall and a town gate of
ancient Verona.
The photograph on the right is a Renaissance palace. How many things can you
see which are similar?The spread of
Renaissance buildingThe building
ideas of the Renaissance spread from Italy
to other parts of Europe. As they went to
other countries they changed a little to suit the people there. The photograph
below on the left shows part of a palace in Paris, France.
You can see that it is more decorated than the Italian building at the bottom
of page 96.The photograph
on the right is of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Compare this with
St. Peter’s in Rome
on page 92. It has many things which remind us of ancient Rome. The third photograph below shows the
old City Hall in Hong Kong before it was
knocked down in the 1940s. What Renaissance building ideas can you see in it?People are still
building in the Renaissance style even today. The last photograph below is of a
museum in California
which was built in 1974.The art of the
RenaissanceSome of the most
famous artists of the western world lived at the time of the Renaissance. Many
of them were Italian. The rich noblemen who paid them always wanted something
new and exciting for their palaces or the churches they were building. The
artists had to find new ways of painting, and new things to paint. On the
opposite page you can see four of the main changes which the Renaissance
artists used to please their masters and to paint such wonderful pictures. Look
at the picture below which was painted by Raphael, and see how many of these
change you can find in it.Studying bodiesThe Renaissance
artists cut up bodies to see where the muscles and bones were (see page 93). In
the Middle Ages the Church would not let them do this. Studying the bodies
helped artists to draw people and animals much better. They could now draw them
in a lifelike way.Studying natureThe artists of
the Middle Ages usually painted what they remembered. Many of their drawings
are not very lifelike. The Renaissance artists went out and made careful
drawings of flowers, trees, rocks and water. This helped them to make their
paintings seem much more real. The painting below of wild plants was made by
the German artist Durer.PerspectiveArtists in the
middle Ages did not know how to draw things in the distance. Often they painted
the figures against a flat background (see page 92, bottom left). Renaissance
artists found out how to make the things in their pictures look near or far
away.Real peopleAlmost all of
the paintings of the middle Ages are about religion. The figures are stiff, and
do not have any expression on their faces. The Renaissance artists painted
people with real expressions. Renaissance artists also began to paint many
pictures that were not religious, but were about ordinary, everyday people and
things.Science and
technology in the RenaissanceMost thinkers of
the Renaissance were not very interested in science as we know it today. The
doctors cut dead people and found out a lot more about how the body works. But
they did not discover many new medicines or ways of treating sick people.The thinkers
were more interested in engineering, mathematics and technology. They wanted to
find out about these things for three reasons: to make new weapons and other
things for war; to build new roads, bridges, canals, transport and buildings,
and to help trade and industry to grow.WarThe Italian
city- states were always fighting one anotehr. Their prices paid the engineers
to invent new weapons like cannon of different kinds, stronger fortifications,
and new ways of knocking down enemy defences.Building and
transportPeople wanted to
move goods quickly and cheaply for trading. This meant building better ships
when the voyages of discovery had been made. People invented new instruments
for surveying and finding the way at sea. This meant better maps could now be
made, and crossing the oceans was much safer.Trade and
industryThe countries of
Europe wanted more maunfactured goods, for
themselves and for trading. This meant trying to invent machienes to do some of
the hard work. They had only wind or water power. They used windmills for
griding grain. Water- wheels were used to drive machines for sawing, hammering,
blowing furnaces, lifting, lifting coal from mines and many other jobs. These
machines were slow and clumsy because they were made of wood. But they did
speed up the making of many things.The Renaissance
Man: Leonardo da VinciMany men of the
Renaissance were often very good at a number of different things. The same
person could often paint, make statues, design building, make jewellary and
write poetry. The most famous of all of these men was leonardo da Vinci.Leonardo was one
of the greatest painters and sculptors of all time. His painting of the Mona
Lisa is one of the most famous in the world. He also painted the Virgin and
Child on page 92.Leonardo was
also very famous as an architect, engineer and scientist. He cut up more than
thirty dead people to see how the human body worked. He made wonderful medical
drawings of the skeleton, muscles, nerves and other parts of the body. He made
madels for a kind of flying machine, a helicopter, a submarine, a diving suit
and a car driven bu spring. None of these things worked, of course, because
people in the 16th century did not have the materials to make them.He invented
machines for digging canals and making bridges and roads. He designed simple
engineering machines such as gears, springs, pulleys and brakes. He invented
all kinds of new weapons such as machine guns, giant crossbows and a wooden
tank. He even designed a simple air-conditioner to blow cold air into his
bedroom in the hot Italian summer.The causes of
the ReformationFor a thousand
years the Catholic Church was the only Church in Western
Europe. In that time it changed very much. By the late Middle Ages
it had often become more interested in power and politics than in religion.
Some scholars were unhappy about this. Then came the Renaissance with the
rebirth of learning. This made more people want a change in other parts of
their lives.In the 16th
century the Church broke into two parts-a Catholic Church and a Protestant Church. This change is called the
Reformation.The bad state of
the Catholic ChurchAl tough most
priests were good men, there were some people in the Church who did not behave
very well. The bishops often thought more of money and power than of religion.
Some priests, monks and nuns behaved very badly. Many ordinary people wondered
why some people in the Church taught one thing and did the opposite.Church taxesEveryone in Europe had to give one-tenth of al they grew or made to
support the priests. Every country had to send many different taxes to Rome. Here they were
often used to build great churches and tombs for the popes and bishops. People
felt they could use the money much better in their own country.The kings and
the PopeMany of the kings
of Europe did not like having the Pope “above”
them. They wanted to be the only ruler in their own Countries. They did not
like the Church owning so much of their land – about one-third of all the land
in Europe belonged to the Catholic Church.The rebirth of
learningRenaissance
scholars found out some things which were the opposite of the Church’s
teachings. The astronomer Copernicus discovered that the earth and the planets
went round the sun. The church taught that the sun went round the earth. Some of
these things made people wonder if some of the other things the Church taught
were also wrong.PardonsThe Reformation
began because of the sale of Pardons. The Church sold pieces of paper which
said people’s sins had been forgiven. If they paid enough money they could get
a paper which said they would go straight to Heaven when they died. In the 16th
century people began to think that this was wrong.The Reformation
Luther and the Protestant
ChurchThe Reformation
began in Germany
in 1517. A German monk, Martin Luther, wanted the Catholic Church to get rid of
some of the bad things which had grown up in it. He wrote down 95 things which
he felt were wrong with the Church. He pinned the notice to the door of his
Church in Wittenberg.
The scholars at the university their used the door as a kind of notice-board.Luther believed
that the Bible was the most important thing in religion and that priests were
not really necessary. Gut at this time the Bible was written in Latin. Only the
priests and scholars could understand it. Luther translated the Bible into
German so that ordinary people could read and understand it.All of this made
the Pope and the Church leaders angry. They thought that if people followed
Luther’s ideas they would go to hell. They also knew that his ideas would take
away much of the Church’s power and money.The Pope ordered
Luther, who was still a Catholic monk, to be punished. But Prince Frederick,
ruler of the state where Luther lived, took Luther to his own castle and
protected him. A number of other German princes believed in Luther’s ideas and
began to hold services in his way in their states.The Protestant ChurchLuther always
wanted to stay a Catholic, but by 1521 he found it impossible. He formed a new
Church which was quite different. It protested against the Catholic ideas and
was called the Protestant
Church. The services were
very simple, and were said in the ordinary language of the country, not in
Latin. The new Church was ruled by a committee of bishops, and not by the Pope.The spread of
ProtestantismLuther’s new
Protestant religion soon spread to other parts of northern Germany, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands,
Switzerland, England and Scotland. Many of the rulers were
with the new religion because they did not have to obey the Pope and pay taxes
to the Catholic Church. They had more power in their own countries.John CalvinIn Switzerland
John Calvin taught a very strict kind of Protestant religion. He said that
there should be no stained glass of statues of decoration in Churches, and that
people should live very strict lives. They should not dance, gamble or wear
brightly coloured clothes. Everyone must live exactly as the Bible said. There
should no bishops, and the Church should be ruled by a committee of preachers
and ordinary people.Calvin’s ideas
spread to the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden
and Scotland.
Calvin’ Church still has many followers in northern Europe and in parts of America today.The persecutionsBoth the
Catholic and the Protestant
Churches were so sure
that they were right and the other wrong that they began to persecute people of
the other Church. In Spain,
especially, many people who would not worship in the Catholic way were burned
to death.The reformation in EnglandJohn WyclifIn the 14th
century and English priest, John Wyclif, had tried to do most of the things
that Luther did 150 years later. Wyclif said that the Bible and church services
should be in English; that monks and priests should be better behaved; that
people could not get to Heaven by penances and pilgrimages, but only by obeying
the Bible, and that a bishop’s job was to look after the church and not to
advise the king. Wyclif translated the Bible into English in 1382 (see the
Photograph on page 109). Because of all these things people think he began the
reformation in England.The Pope was so
angry with Wyclif that he told him to come to Rome for trial in the Pope’s court. Luckily
Wyclif died before he could start for Italy. But the Church ordered his
body to be dug up and burned as an evil man. England remained firmly under the
Pope for another 150 years.Henry 8In 1590 Henry 8
became king of England.
He was a true Renaissance man who could do many things. He was a brave soldier
and a fine horseman; he played many sports well; he was an excellent dancer,
musician and poet. He was also a very good Catholic for many years. His wife,
Catherine, a Spanish princess, had only one daughter, Mary, but Henry
desperately wanted a son to follow him. But, by the late 1520s, Catherine was too
old to have any more Children.The divorce
questionBy the 1530s,
Henry wanted a divorce so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. He hoped that she
would have a son. At this time, only the Pope could give people a divorce, and
he would not give one to Henry. The king made Thomas Cranmer, a priest who
liked the ideas of Luther, the archbishop, and Cranmer, gave Henry the divorce
he wanted without asking the Pope.Henry and his
Chief Minister, Thomas Cromwell, then began to break all connections between
the English Church
and the Pope in Rome Henry was made head of the Church in England, but
anyone who did not worship in the Catholic way was still punished very harshly.
The Pope urged other Catholic countries to fight England, but none of them would do
so.Henry got other
advantages besides the divorce he wanted. All of the taxes which had gone to
the pope now came to the King. Later he closed down the hundreds of monasteries
in England,
and took their treasures. He sold or gave their land and buildings to his friends.
Henry became very powerful indeed, as he was both king and head of the Church.
He was very popular with the people. Many of the nobles liked him because they
now had Church lands; the ordinary people liked him because they no longer had
to obey a foreign Pope of bishops.The Protestant
king: Edward VI (1547-53)When Henry 7
died, his young son Edward became king. Al though he was only none years old,
he had been brought up as a strict protestant. He and his advisers made the
Church in England a protestant Church.The Catholic
queen: Mary I (1553-8)When Edward
died, his elder sister Mary became queen. She was a strict Catholic and tried
to turn the Church in England
back into a one again. But she died before she could finish the Change.The Protestant queen:
Elizabeth I (1558-1638)Mary’s younger
sister Elizabeth
then became queen. She was the daughter of Anne Boleyn. She changed the Church
in England
back into a Protestant one again, with herself as its head. The Church in England has
been Protestant ever since.The Catholic
Church fights backThe ideas of
Luther and Calvin spread further and further across Europe.
More and more people and countries turned from being catholic to being
Protestant.Changes in the
Catholic ChurchIn 1534 a new
Pope, Paul III, was chosen. He was very clever, and had a very strong
character. He saw that the Catholic Church could never stop the Protestants by
fighting. He also saw that there were many things which were wrong in the
Church, and that it would have to change.He stopped many
of the bad things such as selling pardons for sins. He made the bishops go back
from Rome to
live in their own areas. He started schools where the ordinary priests could
not read or write. He punished very severely any churchmen who did not behave.
He set up courts which could torture and execute people who were not being true
Catholics.Most important
of all, he agreed to a new order of very special monks, called the Society of
Jesus or the Jesuits.The Society of
JesusThe Jesuits were
a group of very clever monks. They did not wear special robes or live in
monasteries, but dressed in ordinary clothes and lived among ordinary people.
They worked with very strict discipline, like a regiment of soldiers.This is not
surprising because the Society was started by a Spanish nobleman, Ignatius
Loyola, who had been a soldier. He had been very badly wounded, and almost
died. Then he decided he would spend the rest of his life fighting for the
Catholic Church.The Jesuits were
teachers and missionaries. They trained for ten years and were very clever at
arguing. They were very religious, brave and honest. They did not force people
to be Catholic they discussed religion and made people want to join the
Catholic Church.By the end of
the 16th century a number of countries a number of countries in Europe had come back to being Catholic again. Many of the
people in Central and South America, Japan and parts of India had become Catholic because
of the work of the Jesuit missionaries.The Thirty Years
War The Protestants and the Catholics were both
very strong now. Both Churches believed that they were right. A terrible war
broke out between them in 1618 and lasted until 1648. Almost all of the
countries in Europe took part at one time or
another. But the countries which are now Germany,
Czechoslovakia and Poland stuffed
the most. Both
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