User:Knagayam/sandbox

Roman Empire
The fall of the Roman Empire in the West is seen as one of the most pivotal points in all of human history. This event traditionally marks the transition from classical civilization to the birth of Europe. The Roman Empire started to decline at the end of the prevail of the last five emperors, Marcus Aurelius in 161-180 A.D. There is still a debate over the cause of the fall of one of the largest empires in the history. Piganiol argues that the Roman Empire under its authority can be described as "a period of terror", holding its imperial system accountable for its failure. Another theory blames the rise of Christianity as the cause, arguing that the spread of certain Christian ideals caused internal weakness of the military and state. In the book The Fall of the Roman Empire, by Peter Heather, he contends that there are many factors, including issues of money and manpower, which produce military limitations and culminate in the Roman army’s inability to effectively repel invading barbarians at the frontier. The Western Roman economy was already stretched to its limit in the 4th and 5th Centuries C.E. due to continual conflict and loss of territory which, in turn, generated loss of revenue from the tax base. There was also the looming presence of the Persians which, at any time, took a large percentage of the fighting force’s attention. At the same time the Huns, a nomadic warrior people from the steppes of Asia, are also putting extreme pressure on the German tribes outside of the Roman frontier. The German tribes really had no other choice, geographically, but to move into Roman territory. At this point, without increased funding, the roman army could no longer effectively defend its borders against major waves of Germanic tribes. This inability is illustrated by the crushing defeat at Adrianople in 378 C.E. and, later, the Battle of Frigidus.

Christianity in Japan
Christianity in Japan spread in various phases. Like many other parts of world, it was brought by religious missionaries and the European traders and invaders. It is almost in middle of the 16th century that the Portuguese traders arrived on the “land of rising sun”. Later on, Christianity was prohibited as the rulers started seeing them as a threat to their authority. Following a change of regime, the ban was lifted and missionaries were again allowed to enter Japan. Like many Native American tribes, the Japanese also resisted the new religion. The formal conversion to Christianity began when Francis Xavier, the Spanish born Jesuit missionary came to Japan in 1549. He was among pioneers of the Society of Jesus or commonly called Jesuits. As a missionary, Xavier went to Asia and carried out his missionary activities in India and Malacca. Initially the military lords were helpful towards the missionaries mainly driven by their own interests, but with passage of time they noticed the increasing influence of missionaries. The situation was alarming for them and ultimately made them rethink about their relation with the Jesuits. It was therefore in 1564 that the Christian missionaries were ousted from Kyoto by Emperor Ogimachi but were allowed to come back in 1569 by Oda Nobunaga. During the period of anti-Christianity, Christians in Japan practiced their faiths in secrecy and kept their "underground" community within themselves, avoiding the government's eyes.