Exchange between christians and muslims in the 15th century
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  Exchange between christians and muslims in the 15th century
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Author Topic: Exchange between christians and muslims in the 15th century  (Read 506 times)
buritobr
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« on: May 29, 2020, 07:34:51 PM »

In 1400, Constantinople was christian and southern Spain was muslim. In 1500, Constantinople was muslim and the whole Spain was christian. Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople became a mosque. Mosques in southern Spain became churches.

Who took more benefit in this exchange?

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World politics is up Schmitt creek
Nathan
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« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2020, 01:41:34 AM »

Christians gained more in the long run, although it seemed otherwise to many thinkers and chroniclers at the time.
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Orser67
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« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2020, 07:54:38 AM »

It is pretty interesting how the two regions changed "civilizational" (if one accepts the notion that the Islamic Middle East and Christian Europe were civilizations) hands at roughly the same time. I think it's a good example of how history isn't always driven by long-term factors and can be quite contingent on the actions of relatively small groups of people; it probably makes more geographic sense for Constantinople to be part of the Islamic Middle East than Spain, but the latter was conquered by Islamic leaders centuries earlier in large part because it was ruled over by a weaker state than the Byzantine Empire.

Anyway, I would say that Christian Europe won the trade, because the success of the Reconquista played a major role in the exploration of the New World and the opening of new trade routes to Asia, which gave Europe a short-term commercial advantage and in turn ultimately led to long-term European political and military dominance.
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buritobr
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« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2020, 03:50:02 PM »

Yes, the after the reconquista and the unification of the spanish kingdons, Spain joined the great navigation, like the portuguese. The navigations had also stimulus from the fall of Constantinople: until 1453, the goods from India stoped in Constantinople and then, they went to Genoa and Venice. After the fall of Constantinople, western Europeans tried to reach India directly. Vasco da Gama arrived in India in 1498.
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2020, 12:35:38 AM »

To the extent that it makes sense to think of Islam and Christendom as meaningful political units at that point in time (it really doesn't), unquestionably Islam. Byzantium, even with its glory days long past, remained a major center of culture (while the story of fleeing Byzantines kickstarting the Renaissance was wildly exaggerated, there is some truth to it), religious spiritual power, and historical prestige (witness Russia's subsequent efforts to cast itself as its heir). The Ottoman Empire went on to become one of the foremost world powers for the next 3 centuries. Al Andalus, while culturally rich, had never been of much political significance (hell, in its earlier form it was basically the retirement home for a deposed dynasty of Caliphs). And while Spain would go on to become extremely significant for obvious reasons, I'm pretty sure that some other Atlantic power would have filled its shoes soon enough. Heck, the crowns of Castille and Aragon would still exist even if they'd failed to take Grenada, and they'd still have access to the Atlantic, so nothing would prevent the Columbus expedition from happening. The Reconquista is ultimately a secondary (though by no means minor) historical event.
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