Browse Hierarchy HIST5005: Conflict and Belief in the Early Modern World

What motivates individuals to take up arms or sacrifice themselves in the name of religion? Why would individuals travel across the globe with the aim of converting or killing for their beliefs? The issues of faith, conversion and religious violence, which resonate to the present day, will be tackled in this module, which provides a study in cultural encounters, as well as religious and social change, between 1500 and 1648. It will explore the attempts made to Christianise the world, in the British Isles, Europe, Asia and the Americas in the aftermath of the Reformation of 1517, which shattered the image of a universal Catholic Church.