Yes, it's helpful to know the tenets of religion and a bit of their history - but, that is not the focus for our class. We have to discuss religion in terms of geopolitics. Basically, how places and people interact with one another. Without political borders conflicts were going to bicker. Several religions in history are now fractures - Christianity is split into three major branches at this point.

Keep in mind that all empires have a belief system at their core. And there are two new players to the field; Sikhism in Punjab (that's in India and Pakistan) and Protestantism in Northern Europe.

College Board really only focuses on the Shi'a and Sunni conflict, but try to remember the Catholics and Protestants have been fighting for decades too. That'd be a good little contextualization and analysis to provide if there was an LEQ on DBQ on this topic.

For this topic you should be able to:

Explain continuity and change within the various belief systems during the period from 1450 to 1750.

• The Protestant Reformation marked a break with existing Christian traditions and both the Protestant and Catholic reformations contributed to the growth of Christianity.

• Political rivalries between the Ottoman and Safavid empires intensified the split within Islam between Sunni and Shi’a.

• Sikhism developed in South Asia in a context of interactions between Hinduism and Islam.