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Description:

Today we'll learn about how people hated taxes so much that they were willing to change religions just to avoid them. And as a result, Aksum became a whole lot less awesome.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Once upon a time, a great kingdom rose to amass great power and wealth… [Book turns page]

00:09

Uh…how does this story usually end?

00:11

Yep.

00:12

Eventually, every kingdom falls….for one reason or another. [Kingdom explodes]

00:15

In Aksum’s case, the reason was a new religion on the block called Islam.

00:20

In the early centuries of the Common Era, Aksum was mega-Christian, and the rest of

00:24

North and East Africa was a hodgepodge of religions and traditions.

00:28

"Want to pray to Jupiter, or the Sun? [Jupiter approaches the sun]

00:31

Why not both?

00:32

Who cares?"

00:33

Aksum was closely connected to the Arab people across the Red Sea in what is now Saudi Arabia. [Aksum and Arabian man high-five]

00:38

They shared language, trade goods, and even religious concepts.

00:42

Written Arabic was similar to Aksum's classical language of Ge'ez, and it used some

00:47

of the same letters. [Ge'ez letters appear

00:49

If you were a Red Sea trader, you'd only have to learn like one and a half alphabets to

00:53

read stuff on both sides of the Sea.

00:56

Well here's a fact that might blow your mind

00:58

Ethiopian Christian churches even existed in Saudi Arabia before Islam. [Church in a desert]

01:03

By the 6th century, many Arabs were familiar with the ideas of both Ethiopian and Egyptian

01:08

Christianity.

01:09

But most Arabs still followed local polytheistic traditions, meaning they were into the many-god [Arab approach church]

01:14

view of the universe.

01:15

Then Islam happened.

01:17

In the beginning of the 7th century CE, Muhammad founded the religion of Islam and centered [Muhammad appears with camel]

01:22

it in Mecca…

01:23

…a bustling trade city just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Africa's east coast.

01:28

Soon after, things started getting real.

01:31

Islam spread to both Arab cities and Arab nomads. [Islam spreading to Arab cities]

01:33

And it united Arabia into a single religious empire called a "caliphate."

01:39

Like any good empire, the caliphate started to expand, barging into Africa and conquering

01:43

all the kingdoms in its path.

01:45

The first caliphate, the Rashidun Caliphate, fought Aksum for control of the

01:49

Red Sea.

01:50

Aksum said "let's go halfsies," and the caliphate and Aksum agreed to split control of the Red [Aksum and caliphate in discussions]

01:56

Sea trade routes.

01:58

But Aksum's days of dominance were numbered.

02:00

When the Rashidun Caliphate collapsed, a new and more aggressive empire took over, the [Caliphate soldiers take over empire]

02:05

Umayyad Caliphate.

02:07

In the seventh century, the Umayyads invaded Egypt and North Africa. [Soldiers in battle]

02:11

The Muslim conquerors got pretty far, too.

02:14

By 750 CE, they’d even conquered as far as Spain.

02:18

The Muslims had a pretty nifty way of converting people too. [Man preaching to muslim man]

02:22

According to the Quran, an Islamic government can’t use force to convert people

02:26

to Islam.

02:27

But the caliphates found a loophole. [Man running with a book]

02:28

While they were officially cool with Egyptian, Ethiopian, and Roman Christianity, as well

02:33

as Judaism…

02:34

The caliphates tried to encourage conversion by giving anybody who was Muslim a major tax [Tax form of caliphate conversion]

02:39

break.

02:40

Which worked like a charm.

02:41

About 90-95% of North Africans eventually became Islamic.

02:45

It turns out that, when offered a choice between their most deeply-held beliefs and a lower [People holding their tax forms]

02:48

tax rate, 9 out of 10 people will take the lower tax rate.

02:52

Islam spread gradually throughout the conquered territories, and eventually the Christian

02:56

kingdom of Aksum was surrounded.

02:58

Aksum still had biceps at this point, but it was isolated from its neighbors and shut [Aksum flexing biceps]

03:02

out of the Red Sea trade routes.

03:04

And without its major source of wealth, Aksum slowly started to fall apart. [Aksum explodes]

03:08

Man, Aksum.

03:09

This would’ve been a good time to break out the Ark and start melting faces...

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