Final answer:
Missionaries expanded Christendom by converting locals, founding educational and religious institutions, integrating local cultures, and providing humanitarian aid. They often operated in tandem with imperial powers, spreading Christianity together with western education and modernization. Historic examples cover periods from medieval England's conversion through Augustine of Canterbury to 19th-century American expansionist efforts in Asia.
Step-by-step explanation:
Missionaries worked to expand Christendom by engaging with native populations across the globe, often in regions touched by European colonial expansion. Their methods included converting local peoples, establishing churches and schools, and advocating for Christianity's integration with local cultures. In many cases, conversions went hand-in-hand with the introduction of education, modernization, and medicine, with missionaries presenting these as components of civilized society. Historical examples include missionaries like Augustine of Canterbury, who converted Anglo-Saxon rulers in medieval England, and the Jesuit missionaries in Japan who learned the local language to more effectively communicate and convert the Japanese. Women missionaries, who represented a significant portion of the missionary workforce, played a crucial role in spreading both Christian theology and Western ideologies especially in Asia after the Civil War in the United States.
Missionary societies, such as the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, conflated Christian teachings with American virtues, zealously promoting both abroad. In the Americas, friars such as Bartolome de las Casas worked to build relationships with the indigenous populations, providing education and defending their human qualities against colonial exploitation. Christianity was also spread through the persistent efforts of missionaries in areas like Ethiopia, where the religion took on unique local characteristics due to distance from the central authority in Alexandria. From Pope Gregory's missions in the British Isles to the Jesuit presence in feudal Japan, missionary work has often aligned with the interests of imperial powers and played a foundational role in the spread of Christianity.