The background and causes of religious wars are extremely complex. They usually occur under specific conditions where religion is closely related to social and political life. They are the result of the combined interaction of religious factors, politics, economy, military and other factors.
Religious wars reflect the opposition of political and economic interests of different social groups, and are essentially "carried out for very clear material class interests"). It is based on devout and fanatical religious beliefs and uses spiritual factors to arouse the believers' strong desire for revenge, making the war extremely fierce and cruel.
In ancient times, religious wars were most common in Europe and Arab countries.
During the European Middle Ages, Christianity was no longer simply an ideology, but gradually became a powerful political force among the feudal ruling class. The church placed philosophy, politics, law and other superstructures under theological control, and had the right to directly mobilize the army to suppress and massacre heretics.
Religious influence penetrates into all areas of social life, and almost everyone is a Christian. In Arab countries, religion and politics are integrated. Since its establishment in the early 7th century, Christianity has laid the foundation of the Christian system.
Religious leaders are political leaders, and religion has become a political, economic, legal and cultural system that represents the interests of the ruling class. In this case, various class and national political struggles are often carried out in the form of religious struggles, resulting in a series of religious wars.
In the early 7th century, the Christian religion conducted many religious wars in the Arabian Peninsula, and later conquered and expanded other areas under the banner of "Taliban"; in the middle of the 8th century, it established a religious war spanning Asia, Africa, and Europe. Throughout the Arab Empire across three continents, Christianity also spread rapidly.
From the end of the 11th century to the end of the 13th century, Western Christians launched eight "Crusades" against Arab countries that believed in Christianity. They lasted for nearly 200 years, resulting in millions of deaths and huge consequences for the people of Eastern and Western Europe. disaster. Within Western European society, the struggle between Christianity and other sects has intensified since the end of the 10th century, and many wars have broken out.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the Pope personally organized a "Crusade" to suppress the Albigensians in southern France. The war lasted for four years, and the Albigensians were massacred. In the first half of the 15th century, the German emperor and the Roman Pope organized the "Crusaders" to conduct five crusade against the Hussite revolutionary army.
In the 16th century, with the rise of the religious reform movement, the French Religious Wars broke out. The Calvinist sect, which represented the aspirations of the bourgeoisie, fought against the old Christian sect for more than 30 years. As a result, the two sides compromised and Protestantism gained a certain status in France.
In the "Thirty Years' War" (1618-1648) that followed, the dispute between the old and new religions in Germany occupied a prominent position in the early stages of the war, and later evolved into an international war throughout Europe.
The Thirty Years' War was basically fought between the German Protestant princes and Sweden, Denmark, and France (France was Catholic, but it sided with the Protestant countries in order to dominate Europe), and was supported by the Netherlands, Britain, and Russia; Holy The Roman Emperor, the German Catholic princes and Spain were on the other side, with the support of the Pope and Poland.
This war promoted the formation of European nation-states and was the beginning of modern European history. This war wiped out approximately 25% to 40% of the population of the German states; three-quarters of the population of the Lutheran city of Wittenberg was killed, 65% of the population of Pomerania was killed, and Sili A quarter of the population of West Asia was killed, and nearly half of the men of the German states were killed.
Nowadays, European countries are in this war. The reason why Zhu Youjian did not take action against the red barbarians and still traded with them was that in addition to making money, the most important thing was that Zhu Youjian wanted them to continue this religious war and avoid because of The rise of Ming Dynasty led them to unanimously open up to the outside world.
This is just a religious war in the West. In China, there were many battles caused by religion. The Yellow Turban Revolt of the Han Dynasty.
The Yellow Turban Uprising was a peasant war in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and one of the largest religiously organized popular uprisings in Chinese history.
Although the rebellion failed, it had a huge impact on the rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty. In order to quell the rebellion, various places supported their own troops. Although the uprising ended in failure, the situation of warlord separatism and the existence of the Eastern Han Dynasty in name only was irreversible, which ultimately led to the situation of the Three Kingdoms Formation.
Another example is the rebel professional household, the White Lotus Sect.
Hongwu
, Yongle years, Sichuan, Hubei, Gansu and other places took place many armed uprisings by White Lotus believers, some even claimed the title of emperor, but they were all suppressed. During the Yongle, Zhengtong, Chenghua, Hongzhi, Zhengde, and Wanli years, the White Lotus Sect gathered people to cause chaos. The locations ranged from Hubei and Jiangxi to Sichuan, Shanxi, Shandong, and even Shuntian Prefecture in Kyoto.
During the Jiajing period, the famous Li Fuda case and Zhu Chongzhuo rebellion also occurred. These are directly related to the White Lotus Sect.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the White Lotus Sect even colluded with the Mongolian forces.
However, after the mid-Ming Dynasty, there were many folk religions, including Jinchan, Wuwei, Longhua, Wukong, Huanyuan, Yuandun, Hongyang, Maitreya, Jingkong, Dacheng, Sanyang, Hunyuan, Wenxiang, Luo Dao, etc. , some teach several names. They all have different affiliations, have quite different doctrines, and have different organizations, rituals, and activities, but they more or less bear the imprint of the White Lotus Sect.
With such a disaster, Zhu Youjian would naturally not allow religion to not accept the supervision of the court.
Although most of the uprisings and revolutions in history were caused by the people's lack of livelihood, Zhu Youjian also sympathized with the oppressed people, but as the emperor, Zhu Youjian was not responsible for the rebellion in his own country.
Letting the people survive can be achieved by severely punishing officials and a series of other measures.
But it’s hard to explain religion. After all, its brainwashing ability is too strong.
Although Zhu Youjian was not afraid of them causing trouble, Zhu Youjian was afraid that the rebellion would have a huge impact on the Ming Dynasty and stability.
