How Religions Spread – Map

Where each of the five largest religions began, the routes it spread along, and when. Choose a religion:

Judaism

1. Land of Israel – from the 10th c. BCE; return: from 1882, the State 1948
2. Babylon – Babylonian exile, 586 BCE
3. Alexandria – from the 3rd c. BCE
4. Yemen – before Islam
5. Rome – from the 2nd c. BCE
6. Spain – from Roman times; expulsion 1492
7. Ashkenaz (Rhineland) – 10th c.
8. Poland-Lithuania – 13th–16th c.
9. Ottoman Empire – exiles from Spain, 1492
10. The Americas – from 1654; mass migration 1880–1924

More on how Judaism spread →

Christianity

1. Jerusalem – around 30 CE
2. Asia Minor and Greece – 1st c. (Paul)
3. Rome – 1st c.; state religion, 380
4. Egypt – 1st–3rd c.
5. Armenia – 301
6. Ethiopia (Aksum) – 4th c.
7. China – 635 (Church of the East)
8. Britain and Ireland – 5th–7th c.
9. Scandinavia – 10th–11th c.
10. Kievan Rus – 988
11. The Americas – from the 16th c. (Spain and Portugal)
12. Sub-Saharan Africa – mostly 19th–20th c.
13. Philippines – 16th c.
14. Korea – 18th–19th c.

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Islam

1. Mecca – 610; Arabia by 632
2. The Levant – 634–640
3. Egypt – 641
4. Persia – 651
5. North Africa – 7th c.
6. Spain – 711
7. Central Asia – 8th c.
8. Sindh – 711
9. Northern India – Delhi Sultanate, 1206
10. Anatolia and the Balkans – 11th–15th c.
11. West Africa – from the 11th c., along trade routes
12. East African coast – 8th–10th c., by sea trade
13. Indonesia and Malaysia – 13th–16th c., by sea trade

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Buddhism

1. Bodh Gaya – around the 5th c. BCE; across India under Ashoka, 3rd c. BCE
2. Sri Lanka – 3rd c. BCE
3. Gandhara and Central Asia – from the 2nd c. BCE
4. China – 1st c. CE, via the Silk Road
5. Korea – 372
6. Japan – 6th c.
7. Tibet – 7th–8th c.
8. Mongolia – 13th and 16th c.
9. Thailand and Southeast Asia – Theravada from Sri Lanka, 11th–13th c.

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Hinduism

1. Northern India – Vedic period, from around 1500 BCE
2. Southern India – 1st millennium BCE
3. Nepal
4. Southeast Asia – from the early centuries CE; Angkor, 9th–15th c.
5. Java and Bali – from the early centuries CE; today mainly Bali
6. Mauritius – from 1834 (indentured labour)
7. South Africa – from 1860 (indentured labour)
8. Fiji – 1879–1916 (indentured labour)
9. Caribbean (Trinidad, Guyana) – 19th c. (indentured labour)
10. Britain and North America – 20th c. (migration)

More on how Hinduism spread →

The maps show the main routes and the dates commonly given in research. They simplify processes that often took centuries, and do not show every community.