Olivia Schankey

Mr.Bosch

Modern World History

02 November 2020

This is an image of two Priests converting young African children from their original religion into christians. 

African Convert-

Christian and Islamic occupy the main religions that take over Africa. Missionaries had been taught to hate their African ways. Westerners viewed Africans as uncivilized and by converting them they would become more civilized. The Westerners believed that the Jesus was a necessity for the Africans and was the only way they would get through things and go to heaven. Africans were also treated very unequal during these times and already known to be inferior due to the color of their skin, so by converting their religion it would help them gain a bit more respect.

This is an image of the Sepoys. They were the soldiers in the British East India Company's Troops. 

Sepoy Rebellion- 

The Sepoy Rebellion started due to the fact that during their service they were told to do things against their religion which was a major disadvantage for the missionaries. This led to about 6,000 European deaths and about 800,000 Indian deaths. This meant they lost many Sepoys and many people they could've converted. 

This is a Sati, which is a formal practice in India where in some religions the widow jumps in the burning of the husband's pyre after his death. 

Positives and Negative of Converts-

Some positives of conversions were elimination of Satis and other harmful practices, and also the fact that the Westerns had made their religion so diverse. But along with those positives were tons of negatives such as conversions against their will. Westerners had threatened other people with other beliefs that they would be forced to labor, enslaved, or even as far as killed if they did not convert to the christian ways. Another negative was also the fact that those other races were brought down for their color of their skin, they were tore down further for their own beliefs.

This is a type of graph showing the success of the conversions from Islam to Christianity.

How well successful were these conversions-

Just by the fact that Christianity is the most popular religion in the world with about 2.4 billion followers that takes up 31.1% of the world shows that these missionaries were very successful. During Imperialism these missionaries not only were very persuasive but they also had the power to force them unwillingly to convert their religions to Christianity. The power of them doing this had forced ancestor after ancestor to pass down the Christianity. The Westerners were very smart which led to the success and spread of their religion that continues to today.

Sources-

Chiwanza, Takudzwa Hillary. “How Christianity Was Used to Exploit Africans: The African Exponent.” The African Exponent, The African Exponent, 13 Sept. 2017,https://www.africanexponent.com/post/8572-christianity-was-used-to-exploit-africans-through-colonization

  Fogelman, Hugh and Stone, John. CONVERT TO CHRISTIANITY OR DIE, jdstone.org/cr/files/converttochristianityordie.html.

“Sepoy Rebellion of 1858.” History Crunch - History Articles, Summaries, Biographies, Resources and More, 2019, www.historycrunch.com/sepoy-rebellion-of-1858.html. 

Sources-

Brenner, Rebecca. “Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early Republic.” {Essays in History}, 6 Nov.2018,www.essaysinhistory.com/christian-imperialism-converting-the-world-in-the-early-republic/.