The spread of Christianity started from Israel which was then a part of the Roman Empire. Like all new beliefs, it was regarded as a threat to the Empire because it was easy to lay the blame for administrative problems upon a new creed. The Romans started persecuting Christians and many Christians were tortured to death or were penalized in many other ways for practicing their new found beliefs. The resilience and fortitude of the new Christians influenced Emperor Constantine profoundly who confessed to Christian beliefs and gave Christianity a major boost. To earn the best grades in your Dissertation, Thesis and college assignments you should choose an academic writing service that will meet your best writing needs.
Because of the Emperor’s belief the persecution of Christians was immediately stopped and the spread of Christianity overtook earlier pagan beliefs to the extent that religion integrated the church and the state. With religion controlling the highest offices of state and the state is dominated by Christian beliefs the entire cultural identity of the Romans and in most countries under their control underwent a dramatic change. Although people still practiced their pagan beliefs by integrating it with Christianity the entire culture of the country and in most adjoin countries changed to integrate with Christianity and an entirely new Christian culture changed the prevailing cultures of that period.
Even though Christianity had been universally accepted, the power struggles within the church hierarchy made way for another religion to impact the world. This was Islam. Just as Christianity spread throughout most of Europe, Islam became a dominant force in Asia specifically in the Middle East in Arabia, then North Africa and eventfully to Spain and India. Besides basing its beliefs upon Christianity and Judaism, Islam incorporated arts, medicines and other sciences as being part of religion. But here again, the power struggle between different sects i.e. Sunnis and Shiites versions of Islam created a great divide. But the major impact of the religion was that it changed the entire culture of the Middle East and North Africa which included all these countries adopting Arabic as their native and official language.
With the founding and later freedom of the American colonies, the Christian was the driving force for the colonists to risk their lives on ocean voyages and set up a new life. Certain sects of Christians were persecuted in England and other parts of Europe and they wanted to live where they could practice their beliefs freely and without any state interference or hindrances. Among the early settlers were the Puritans who were among the Founding Fathers America. When they gained independence from British rule, their Constitution guaranteed the freedom to practice their beliefs. Had there been no religious persecution in their native countries, perhaps they would never have migrated. This shows the great power of religion to change communities and even countries with new cultural identities and beliefs.