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Christian Markey

Professor Kimberly Lark

History 134

23 April 2017

Portfolio Roundup Paper

Often through the study of the ancient world, one can see the use of religion and moral

tradition as a tool that held many different fragile societies together and advanced human society

as a whole, while also sometimes being used as a tool to mobilize society towards a certain goal.

Three historical figures covered in the learning modules for this course that utilized religion and

moral tradition to advance their societies are Augustus Caesar, Emperor Constantine, and the

prophet Muhammad. Augustus in Imperial Rome utilized moral traditions to hold Roman society

together and took a conservative approach of moral tradition to bring back older Roman

traditions and try to restore the empire to its former glory.(M9: Imperial Rome) In doing so,

Augustus helped hold the Roman Empire together by focusing on old traditions of the past and

stopped the decline that was present in the Empire from the power struggle left behind from

Julius Caesars death. As a result of Augustuss conservative approach, and use of older tradition

when running the Empire, Rome was able to persist as a major power in the region for much

longer than it would have, had it collapsed from the internal power struggle of the triumvirate.

Constantine also acted in a similar manner when he held the western part of the split former

Roman empire together, and utilized religion hold a culture on the brink of collapse together.

Constantine brought everyone in the empire together in a sense by the promotion and his

conversion to Christianity.(M10: Medieval Europe) By doing so, Emperor Constantine both

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stopped the empire from collapsing into turmoil, and brought the people of the empire under one

common religion, which would have helped create a sense of cohesion between the peoples of

the empire and strengthened the bonds which held society together at the time to try and create

prosperity for the empire. These actions by Constantine, and the use of religion as a tool to hold

society together, made the western part of the former Roman Empire much more prosperous, and

made society a better place for the people at the time. One can see the importance of

Constantines actions through, This value of historical knowledge obviously justifies teaching

and learning about what happened in recent times, for the way things are descends from the way

they were yesterday and the day before that. But in fact, institutions that govern a great deal of

our everyday behavior took shape hundreds or even thousands of years ago. (Mcneill), because

it is through Constantines actions that lead to a major rise in Christianity (an institution which

governs a great deal of our behavior), which can be seen now. The prophet Muhammad also

utilized religion to both spread moral teachings, and the spread of the religion itself, but also to

unify a group of peoples who were essentially uneducated farmers, and create a vast Islamic

Empire. (M13: Rise of Islam) Muhammads accomplishments achieved by effectively using

religion as a tool cannot be understated, his teachings managed to spread vast distances via trade,

and gave small communities laws, while also culminating the cracks that had begun to form in

the fragile Empires that were conquered afterwards by Islamic cultures. This was done first by

familiarizing people in the region with the religion, and second by mobilizing people in the

region to expand their Empire, which was done with immense success due to the amount that the

Byzantine empire and Persian Empire had declined due to inter-warring with each other. As a

result the Islamic Empire, and the religion of Islam was able to expand extremely rapidly across

the region in a very short amount of time and became a dominant world power and religion that's
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teachings would go on for centuries afterwards. From these leaders, one can see that its essential

to create cohesion within a culture or society to ensure the existence continuity, and prosperity of

the civilization, which these leaders did through the spread of religions, and moral tradition.

Overall, the importance of analyzing these leaders and their actions is that, history gives us

meaning. It allows us to think critically about narratives that have developed over time and, in

doing so, provides us with a format to develop the meaningful interpretations necessary to

examine the events that shape modern society. (Postma) These lessons shown from these

leaders actions show the importance and effectiveness of using a tool that will bring society

together under a common purpose or goal, which can be used to great effect today in society to

create necessary change when its needed for the good of everyone, In other words, for Burke,

history matters as a means by which a people can be bound together in ways which keep them

true to the best developments time has had to offer, even while individual tweaks can be made

along the way. (Hodges, 7) In conclusion this class has shown me that as a society we need to

learn and benefit from the lessons of the history of the human race, to make sure the same

mistakes are not made today by making our own little tweaks to how we handle situations based

on how they were handled before and the context of the situation now to provide the best

possible outcome for our society in the future.

Works Cited

Mcneill, William H. "Why Study History?" Why Study History? (1985) | AHA. AHA, 1985. Web.

23 Apr. 2017.
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Postma, Michael. "What Can History Teach Us Today?" ASCD Express 6.22 - What Can History

Teach Us Today? ASCD, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

Hodges, Blair. "Hodges- Final Essay, On Rhetorical Uses of History to Understand the Present."

Academia.edu. N.p., 7 May 2012. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

Module 9: Imperial Rome from etext (Not sure how our e-text is cited so Im sorry if this is

incorrect, but the last posting from you said to cite 3 modules)

Module 10: Medieval Europe from etext

Module 13: Rise of Islam from etext