Ancient history

33. Discrimination and Exploitation in European Society

A series of atrocities in the name of religion

With the rise of Christianity, religious strife and communal animosity took a violent form. Not only did the Jews crucify Jesus Christ, but they also found and killed secretly converting Christians around Jerusalem, creating a permanent wall of hatred between Jews and Christians.

The Romans also brutally murdered Christian saints and preachers to save their ancient Roman religion. The Egyptians had adopted Christianity long before the Romans, due to which the Roman armies persecuted the Egyptian Christians a lot, due to which the Egyptian Christians had to flee and hide in the desert.

Many secret monasteries of Christians were formed in the desert, and the wonderful and mysterious stories of the miracles of the monks living in these monasteries spread throughout the Christian world.

Christianity later became the official religion of the Roman Empire when Constantine, the Emperor of Constantinople, accepted Christianity. After this, it was forbidden to follow any religion other than Christianity in the Roman Empire.

That's why the Catholic Christians of Rome searched and burned the people of ancient Roman religion alive. When Christianity was recognized in Rome, the Egyptian Christians also committed great persecutions on the non-Christians living in Egypt, that is, those who followed the ancient Egyptian religion. After this Iskanderia became a major center of Christian education.

With the passage of time, Christianity kept on splitting and splitting into different sects and Christianity got divided into many sects. These firks used to fight each other for their supremacy. These bloody struggles proved to be very painful for the common man.

When the Arabs brought Islam in the seventh century, they were welcomed by many Egyptians. The Arabs easily conquered Egypt and North Africa and now began to persecute the Christians who believed in Islam and began to seek and kill them. When Islam invaded Qustuntunia in the 15th century, the Christian feudatories of Qustuntunia 'The Messenger's turban is better than the Pope's crown' Saying welcome Islam.

Persecution of Irish Catholics by England

Since Christianity had arrived in Ireland long ago, most Irish people also followed Catholicism. He was looked upon with great contempt in England. The rich feudal people of England were Protestants and their number was very large. They were called lords. Whereas in Ireland the number of Catholics was more and they worked in the fields.

Despite the large population of Catholics in Ireland, the Parliament of Ireland was in the hands of Protestants. These people came from England and settled in Northern Ireland. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, members of the Parliament of England were also elected from Ireland, but no Catholic had the right to enter the Parliament of England.

Discrimination against Italian Catholic workers in America

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, people from many countries of Europe began to settle in America. Among them, people from countries like Germany, Ireland, England, Poland and Italy were prominent. It was a surprise that the people who came from the countries of Northern Europe looked down on the people who came from Southern Europe i.e. Italy. 'Dego' It was called which literally means- 'Wheat colored alien' .

These people worked in America and were weak and scattered. The workers who came from other European countries who got good wages, they also considered the workers of Italy as a separate class and did not take them with them.

Europe's greed and slavery

Slavery was prevalent in Europe for centuries before the birth of Christ. It was a wonder that eras came and went, kingdoms and empires were formed and destroyed, but the practice of slavery remained the same from Rome to the end of Europe.

The handling of the body of another human being like an animal by one human being could have been nothing but a stigma on the element called humanity. Unless a society does not get away from its tendency to do slavery and get it done, the ideological revolution does not take birth in that society. Such a society runs only on power, punishment and capital, not on the sacred qualities of humanity.

Due to the prevailing attitude of slavery in European society for ages, small countries like England, Holland, France, Portugal, and Spain were successful in establishing colonial empires all over the world. In the ancient ages, African countries were in the grip of Europe's greed, but in the Middle Ages, European colonialism and slavery were imposed on American and Asian countries too. For this a large number of human blood was shed.

New Slaves Needed

From the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century, slavery was at its peak throughout Europe. During this period, the famous English city of Liverpool was known as a big market for slaves. These slaves were brought from various countries in which the countries located on the west coast of Africa were prominent.

This place is called 'Slave Coast' in Europe was called In AD 1730, 15 ships of Liverpool were engaged in the work of capturing slaves, whose number increased to 132 in AD 1792. In Lancashire, England, the cotton spinning industry had flourished, for which slaves were needed. This cotton was forcibly lifted from the fields of India and transported to England through ships.

There was a huge production of cotton in the southern states of America as well. Negroes brought from Africa were also forced to work in these fields. In AD 1790, the number of slaves in America was about 7 lakh, which increased to 40 lakh in AD 1861.

Weak voices against slavery

It was natural that some people would start thinking against this barbaric practice and fight for them. The result of these struggles was that in the beginning of the nineteenth century, rules against slavery began to be made in European countries and America. The government of England outlawed slavery and made provisions for harsh punishment, but the slave system continued as it is.

They were brought on top of each other in vessels worse than animals in the dark of night. American author Harriet Beecher Stow wrote 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' ten years before the start of the American Civil War Wrote a book titled, in which the sad life of these slaves has been depicted poignantly.

There was no improvement in the condition of these slaves until the feeling of kindness, sympathy and equality for the animal called 'man' in the soul of the rich people of the European community.

human physical and mental abilities
Standard of Right to Bread, Cloth and House

Like other ancient communities of the world, the Christian community of Europe also did not recognize the idea of ​​freedom and equality of human beings. Somewhere the king was the representative of God, and somewhere the soul was not found in the slaves. The basis of the idea that all human beings cannot be equal was based on the difference in the physical and mental abilities of each human being from time immemorial, due to which differences arise in the economic and social status of human beings.

In many cases, physical abilities were considered a symbol of social status and on this basis the rights of human beings related to food, clothing, property and conduct were increased or decreased. especially in the case of women, slaves and workers. A less nutritious diet and less education were considered sufficient for women than men and were made a part of religion so that no one would oppose that idea. Even women were prohibited from coming out of the house, expressing their views or opinions in meetings, laughing openly, talking to men other than family members etc.

All these things were an essential part of the undeclared and unwritten conduct of other sects of the world even in Christianity. Even there was a difference between the souls of men and women. This trend in the European Community continued into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

met with religious glorification of exploitation
Social Acceptance

The tendency to differentiate in human beings is covered by a religious veil, it becomes an easy social behavior. This is the reason why in the ancient European community, it was considered an easy social behavior to give leftover, stale, less nutritious, half-belly food to laborers and slaves by taking more physical work.

Due to the tendency of human beings to differentiate at every level, there was little space left for ideas like republic or democracy to flourish in Europe. Like Rome, most countries of Europe had an autocratic system, which kept the working and slave class of society under control on the basis of weapons and science.

Until the idea of ​​democracy was strengthened in Europe, this exploitative system continued. Nevertheless, in Venice, Florence and some other states of Europe, limited types of republican systems operated, which were undoubtedly better than the monarchical systems of France, Germany, England and Rome.