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> Places like England and France were transformed from a collection of warring barbarian bands to nations by the cultural standardization brought by christianit
by throwaway729 10y ago
> Places like England and France were transformed from a collection of warring barbarian bands to nations by the cultural standardization brought by christianity. Later reforms were driven by schisms like the reformation and other things.
IMO you have the cause and effect here completely backwards.
- arjie 10y agoIn A Splendid Exchange, William Bernstein actually argues that Islam acted in that direction because of how rigidly and in detail it specified trade rules. It's possible Christianity had a similar effect as well if it specified social rules.
- gozur88 10y agoI don't think he does. When the English kings adopted Christianity, a big part of the draw (for the kings) is the church offered large numbers of literate men that could be used to extend the reach of the king's law. There's a limit to how large your kingdom can be if people are repeating your orders and those of your court from memory.
- Spooky23 10y agoThat's why I suggested looking further back. The medieval era, as gozer88 said, the priests were the only literate people to transmit orders and record things. They also got to define history... significant amounts of historical and contemporary knowledge at that time was always filtered through the lens of the catholic church. Zip ahead to US colonization. Why did people come to North America? In many, if not most cases it was to escape religious prosecution or the blowback relating to that persecution.