When the third wave millennium came by, many opportunities came up, and people could travel around the world. The historical perspectives of change, comparison and conversion are what made traveling possible. This essay expounds on how these three Cs of history affected cultures of different groups of people.
There was a well educated monk from china who enjoyed travelling to the west with the purpose of spreading religion. When he compared his religion to religions in western countries, he realized that his sect lacked some important scriptures. He and other passionate members organized and carried out a study on Buddhism and later integrated it into Chinese. One of his major recordings is the Western Part Records.
Marco Polo was among the travelers who travelled around the globe. He grew up in Italy, and when he was eighteen years old, he travelled to China with his father and uncle. What made their journey necessary was the big change of the Mongols and the peace in the transcontinental kingdom. Polo noticed that this city was one of the most civilized cities in the world. According to him, it had many unique features. Notably, the city had one hundred miles of compass and high bridges.
The bridges were very high but convenient enough to allow the crossing of horses and cars. The city also had twelve guilds; each with a different type of craft. These guilds had houses where 12,000 workers lived. All craftsmen in this city had jobs to do. The guilds also made the city unique.
Ibn Battuta was another notable traveler. He was a citizen of Morocco and very instrumental in spreading religious ideologies. As he traversed different places, he was in the company of some Islam merchants, and together, they did extensive research. Unlike Polo who travelled to many places; including places beyond the boundaries of Christianity, Battuta concentrated mostly on regions where Islamic was highly practiced. He noticed a very big difference among cultures in different places.
When he compared his native country to the countries he toured, he noticed that women in these regions were extraordinarily beautiful, and more respected than men. In Iwalatan, men and women were allowed to have companions who were not their wives or husbands. It was not a taboo to entertain these companions. Ibn once visited a friend and found him with a beautiful woman. The man did not have any problem with Ibn because what he was doing was not an offence.
Monks, merchants and missionaries were common travelers along silk roads. They learned several habits as they traveled along these roads. Things changed after the invention of Manichean prayers from ancient scripts that appeared in different languages. Many people erected buildings along the roads to accommodate the travelers whenever they needed rest. Turks stopped being pastoralists and took up farming. This period was when they moved towards the western direction. During that migration, they converted to Islam.
Summarily, this essay takes us through incidences of change, connection as well as comparison. Change results from extensive tours to different places in the world. All the travelers mentioned facilitated the process of change by bringing new ideas from different places. Comparison, on the other hand, comes up when these travelers visit and compare life in the places they visit. It is usually after comparison that change occurs. Connection occurs when travelers interact with different people and cultures around the world. The three processes are, therefore, complementary to each other.