Why was sugar one of the main driving forces of slave labor?

all of the

a widespread disease that killed many people

the split of the christian church

invasion from arab muslims

the mandate of heaven or tian ming (chinese: 天命; pinyin: tiānmìng; wade–giles: t'ien-ming) is a chinese political and religious doctrine used since ancient times to justify the rule of the king or emperor of china. according to this belief, heaven (天, tian)—which embodies the natural order and will of the universe—bestows the mandate on a just ruler of china, the "son of heaven" of the "celestial empire". if a ruler was overthrown, this was interpreted as an indication that the ruler was unworthy, and had lost the mandate. it was also a common belief among citizens that natural disasters such as famine and flood were signs of heaven's displeasure with the ruler, so there would often be revolts following major disasters as citizens saw these as signs that the mandate of heaven had been withdrawn.[1]

a brief flow chart describing the dynastic cycles in imperial china on claiming to withdrawing the mandate of heaven

the mandate of heaven does not require a legitimate ruler to be of noble birth, depending instead on the just and able performance of the rulers and their heirs. dynasties such as the han and ming dynasties were founded by men of common origins. the concept is in some ways similar to the european concept of the divine right of kings; however, unlike the european concept, it does not in theory confer an unconditional right to rule, despite this being exactly the case in practicality. the mandate would in theory be a preoccupation in a ruler's lifetime, when he would hold onto the mandate and live according to heavens. intrinsic to the concept of the mandate of heaven was the right of rebellion against an unjust ruler. chinese historians interpreted a successful revolt as evidence that heaven had withdrawn its mandate from the ruler. throughout chinese history, times of poverty and natural disasters were often taken as signs that heaven considered the incumbent ruler unjust and thus in need of replacement. the mandate of heaven was often invoked by philosophers and scholars in china as a way to curtail the abuse of power by the ruler. while each dynasty was not the same, they each had a lineage that passed on the prospective ruler by order of generational descent or their priority of birth. many emperors during the imperial times would optimize to have many sons who could be candidates to fill the position after the current ruler has died. in addition heaven was thought to be of how a ruler's works and performance was, which reflected upon how favorable they would be to heaven.

the revival of interest in greek and roman influences also stimulated developments in math and science. the mathematical traditions that governed the conception of the universe were based in greek mathematics that had been preserved and built upon by scientists in muslim lands, such as nasir al-din in the 13th century. the catholic church endorsed the views of ptolemy, the greek philosopher and astronomer who constructed a geocentric theory where all planets, the moon, and the sun revolved around the earth. using calculations from al-din, polish monk and mathematician, nicholas copernicus, concluded that the geocentric theory did not make sense. instead, his data indicated that the earth and all the other planets rotated around the sun, a conclusion that he did not share widely, for fear of retaliation from the church. in fact, his heliocentric theory was not published until after his death in 1543.

the scientist that really got into trouble over the heliocentric theory was italian galileo galilei, who strengthened and improved copernicus' theory. other scientists, such as johannes kepler, had demonstrated that planets also moved in elliptical orbits, and galileo confirmed those theories as well. perhaps most famously, he built a telescope that allowed him to observe the phenomena directly, recording details of heavenly bodies that the ancients could never have known about. galileo's theories were published in the starry messenger in 1610, a highly controversial book criticized by other scientists, as well as officials of the church. galileo made the mistake of making fun of people that disagreed with him, and he was arrested and put on trial, eventually recanting his theory publicly in order to save his own life.