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Causes And Failures Of The Crusades

Decent Essays

The Crusades was a set of wars between the Catholic Church and Muslims. These wars lasted from 1096 A.D. to 1291. The Crusades are known as “successful failures” because two of the nine crusades were successful, the First and Third. On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II called for a crusade to help the Byzantine’s take back the city of Jerusalem. The First Crusade was led by Raymond of Saint Gilles, Godfrey of Bouillon, Hugh of Vermandois, and Bohemond of Taranto. From 1096 to 1099, the Catholics took back Nicea, Jerusalem, Antioch, Edessa, and Tripoli from the Turks. The First Crusade’s goal was to take back the Holy Lands, especially the city of Nicea. The city of Nicea, now modern day Iznik, Turkey, is fifty-five miles, southeast of Constantinople, where the Crusaders are coming from. After months of fighting, the Seljuk Turks surrendered against the Crusaders, giving Nicea back to the Catholic Church. After several weeks of war and conflict, Christian knights began to massacre Jerusalem’s Jewish and Muslim population. Christian knights were getting payback for the persecution of the Christians from the Islamic law. Crusaders split the city of Jerusalem into four small states, which were called the “crusader states”. By 1187, the Muslims took over Jerusalem once again, under their leader, Salah al-Din. Though the Muslims took Jerusalem back, the First Crusade was the closest they saw to success. After conquering Jerusalem faster than expected, many of the

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