Different countries and their empires.
The Russians started to
expand their territory at the same time Western Europeans were making their
empires in the Americas. The Russians
started to take over the area of northern Asia that was around Moscow and pushed
themselves all the way to the Pacific Ocean, expanding in several
directions. During this push, they
encountered numerous other countrymen such as Germans, Ukrainians, and Baltic
people, to name a few, who became a part of the Russian Empire. Some areas were wanted for security purposes
to stop the agricultural people from being sold into slavery while other areas
such as the huge area of Siberia was wanted, so as to take advantage of the
large population of furry animals, which pelts were in the highest of demand
all around the world. During the 18th
century Russian, led by the empress Catherine the Great created a state agency
to look over Muslim affairs and she preached religious tolerance for
Muslims. Local people, because of the
loss of hunting grounds and pasture lands became dependent on Russian markets
for tea, tobacco, alcohol and sugar. Over
time Siberia and the steppes became part of the Russian state. “The Russian
Empire represented the final triumph of an agrarian civilization over the
hunting societies of Siberia and over the pastoral peoples of the
grasslands" (Strayer 638). Russians stayed dominant
politically but the population became overwhelmingly multiethnic while at the
same time becoming one of the biggest and wealthiest powers in Europe. The question of Christianity and Islamic
religions became more evident near the borders of China, India, Persia and the
Ottoman Empire. This Russian empire stayed its own empire until 1991 when the
Soviet Union collapsed.
Asian Empires were also
developing at this same time. Eurasia
was being taken over by the Chinese. “The Mughal Empire from Central Asia ruled
the majority of the Hindu South Asian
under a single Muslim ruled political system and the Ottoman Empire brought
Muslim rule to a largely Christian population in southeastern Europe as well as
Turkish rule to largely Arab populations of North Africa and the Middle
East”(Strayer 639). All of these Asian empires
invoked cross-cultural encounters, the importance of which would be felt
forever after.
China had its own
expansion of an empire however their rulers, who were from the area north of
the “great wall” known as the Qing dynasty, decided to not allow marriage
between the Chinese and themselves because they wanted to keep their ethnicity
separate and distinct. China eventually
took control of large areas of land, but did so not for economic reasons, but
for security as they felt threatened by the Russian Empire. This was taken care of in a peaceful manner
which marked a distinct boundary between Russia and China. Something very notable was that in the areas
where the Chinese or Qing officials had conquered or taken over regions of
land, they did not try and make people try to adhere to their Chinese culture
but allowed them to still use their own cultural ways of Muslim, Mongolian and
Tibetan ways.
In the Mughal Empire in
India, the ones who ruled and approximately 20 percent of the people were
practicing Muslims while the majority of other people there favored some
portion or another of Hinduism. In what
would appear to be a very intellectual decision, the Mughal emperor Akbar knew
that most people were practicing some kind of Hinduism and included some in
offices of the empire as well as built Hindu temples, palaces and the
like. At the same time he tried to
“soften” some of the restrictions placed on Hindu women. “Akbar imposed a policy of toleration” and
met with leaders from many different religions including Buddhist, Jewish and
Christian. Later an emperor who
succeeded Akbar, named Aurangzeb, ”reversed Akbar’s policy of accommodation to
the Hindu people and sought to impose Islamic supremacy”, all of which later
led to the demise of the Mughal Empire.
As stated in the book “The Mughal Empire was the site of a highly significant encounter between two
of the world’s greatest religious traditions. It began with an experiment in multicultural empire building and ended
in growing antagonism between Hindus and Muslims.…and that in the centuries
that followed, both elements of the Mughal experience would be repeated"(Strayer 644). Sad
state of the world, as this still happens to this day. If people were more tolerant of others’
religious beliefs, people may worship as they wish, and everyone could live
more harmoniously with others, things just might be a little more peaceful.
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