Beginning in about 1420, Portugal and Spain carried Roman Catholicism to lands they conquered in Africa, the Americas and Asia. They claimed as Catholic anyone born in their vast colonies. Other European nations entered the competition for lands and peoples. Later, to reduce the cost of conflicts, the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) divided much of Africa between Britain, Germany, France, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and Spain. European nations considered their respective colonies subject to their respective state or leading religions. Each religion’s clergy—often examples of dedicated sacrifice—provided schools, hospitals, and more. Thus, Africans who happened to be born in Portuguese colonies were trained in Roman Catholicism. Other Africans, raised in British colonies, were trained by Anglicans or by regionally approved Protestants. In this way, Africans were divided, not by the Bible, but by conflicts exported from Europe’s long history of religious problems.
EUROPE EXPORTED ITS DIVISIONS.
Many indigenous peoples did what they could to resist colonial powers. Even while benefiting from education and modern advances, they resented political domination (the state) and spiritual domination (state-approved churches). They also reasoned that if Europeans had the right to start their own churches, Africans also had the right. If Europeans could use religion for political ends, Africans could too. Indigenous, independent churches flourished across Africa, often mixing traditional animism with elements borrowed from the Bible. Similar processes took place across the globe, extending to the Far East and islands of the Pacific. The Reformation had introduced hundreds of divisions. Colonialism did its part to multiply the effect to thousands.