First Crusade Research Paper

Although a topic of my past history classes has been the Crusades, I only come out of them with a vague understanding of the situation. So, I sought out to gain a greater understanding through the vision of the question, "Was the first crusade a success, and if so, what made it a success?" Using The Crusades: A Reader, specifically the writings and documents from pages 33-79, I will make a decision based on specific occurrences and their ultimate goal (CITE SOURCE WITH FULL CITATION).I plan on picking out important aspects of the first crusade and determine whether or not they contributed to the success or failure of it. Also, I will try to uncover the motivations and the organization that led to the execution of the plan to recapture the Holy Land. In short, the first crusade interests me the most because there were crusades afterward, signifying it must have been found successful in some understanding.

In 1095, Pope Urban II called for an army to go to the Holy Land, Jerusalem. This was what was later known as the ‘First Crusade’. A crusade is a religious war or a war mainly motivated by religion. The first crusade consisted of 10’s of thousands of European Christians on a medieval military expedition to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. This doesn’t mean that the first crusade was just motivated by religion. Throughout this essay, I will be suggesting the main reasons of why people went on crusades and which different people went for specific reasons and why.

The Crusades were great military missions developed by Christian nations of Europe for the purpose of rescuing the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the hands of the Moslems. Jerusalem was extremely important to the Moslems and Christians at this time. Many religious events happened there, and many landmarks of both religions were located in Jerusalem. There were many Crusades some more significant than others, but in general the Crusades were very important to the spread of Christianity and religious based knowledge. The Crusades are an example of religious rebellion that is timeless and universal throughout the world.

A major turning point in Medieval history were the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of wars fought between the Christian Europeans and the Muslim Turks, which occurred between the years of 1096 to 1272. In this Holy War the Christians goal was to obtain the Holy Land from the Turks, in which they did not succeed. Although the Christians did not meet their goal, many positives did come out of their attempt. Due to the reason that they did not meet their goal, yet numerous positives came out of their effort, many refer to this as a successful failure.

In the eleventh through thirteenth century there were a nine wars and they were between some of the biggest religions today know as christian and Muslim these wars were know as the crusades. The crusades we very powerful and some Muslims still hate Christians to this day, what i am trying to prove is that were the crusades more positive or negative.

The word “crusade” means “going to the cross.” notice the idea of the name it’s to encourage Christian fighters to go towards the Holy Land and free Jerusalem from the Muslims. Some people may argue that the crusades was actually a

L. The main reason the crusades started was to take Jerusalem from the Turks. Before 1087, Christian pilgrims frequently traveled to Jerusalem, “the holy land”. However, according to document 6, “from 1087 onwards, turks stopped christian pilgrims from entering Jerusalem.” Basically, the Turks claimed Jerusalem as their own, and prevented any pilgrimages. Pope Urban II was not happy about this. He called European Christians to war in 1095 to recapture Jerusalem. According to Document 1, he says, “I, or rather, the Lord, beseech you as christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich….to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends.” Basically, Pope Urban II is urging the people to fight the Turks, and win back Jerusalem.

The origin of the Crusades is rooted in political upheaval. The mid seventh century to the mid tenth century CE saw a gradual expansion of Islam (Riley-Smith 1). Half of the Christian world was conquered by Arab armies. This included countries in which Christianity had been established for centuries, such as Egypt, southern France, southern Italy, Sicily, Spain, Syria, and Turkey (Riley-Smith 2). By the late tenth century, Europe and the Middle East were divided into Christian and Muslim hemispheres of influence. Christian pilgrims from Europe regularly visited the Muslim-controlled Jerusalem. These pilgrimages were very popular.

The first crusade was the first Christian journey to Jerusalem, the holy land so that they could aid the Eastern Christians lay siege to the city and take it back from the Saracens, a name for the Muslims during the Crusades. In November 1095, Pope Urban II called for the first crusade and announced it at the town of Clermont, central France. He proposed that Christians go to Jerusalem to liberate the church in the name of religious devotion, a cover-up for people seeking honour or glory. The crusaders were mainly comprised of peasants from France and Germany. When the crusade began on the 1st of November 1098, Bohemund and Raymond Toulouse both claimed to be in charge; an argument broke out. While the Crusaders captured the town of Ma’arra, Bohemud returned to Antioch and captured the city for himself. Bohemund proposed that he would let Raymond lead the crusade if he could have Antioch, and so Raymond led the crusade. On 7th June 1099, the crusaders finally reached Jerusalem. It is said that as the great walls of the city came within sight they wept with joy, but this was not the end of their journey. Jerusalem had solid defence and was heavily guarded which presented a challenge for the Crusaders as they did not have the necessary siege equipment to break through the walls as that would require wood which was scarce. Then a priest had a vision that if the Soldiers marched around the city 3 times bare foot. The crusaders did this and within a week they took control of the

The first Crusades were ordered by Pope Urban II. The Crusades were a series of military Christians and Muslims. They fought over the holy land of Jerusalem. It took place in Middle East between 1095 and 1291. The Crusades were caused primarily by the desire for political and economical gain rather than religious devotion.

The First Crusade was cause by conflicts between the Christians and the Muslims for the Holy Land, Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the holy city for all three groups of different faiths; the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims. For the Christians, Jerusalem was where Jesus was crucified and resurrected. For the Muslim, Jerusalem was the place where Muhammad had ascended to heaven. For the Jews, it was their God 's city and it was the sit of Solomon 's temple. The main idea of the First Crusade was good against evil, in which the crusaders were on the good side and the Muslims and Jews on the evil side; after all they were the one who killed Jesus. The two main leaders that called for the First Crusade were Alexius I, emperor of the Byzantine

The Crusades were Christian military expeditions undertaken between the 11th and the 14th century to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims. The word crusade, which is derived from the

From the video provided regarding The Peasants’ Crusade there were numerous events that led to the beginning of the crusades, which largely stem from the Pope Urban. The three specific pieces of evidence that were provided in the video that attributed to the beginning of the Crusades that I will focus in on is: the Pope using Alexiuse’s letter as an excuse to start an Army, the Pope’s misleading words and him twisting the meaning of passages of the Bible, and how he motivated “soldiers” to be a part of this Holy War.

As seen through the Second Crusade: Reacting to the Past Game, several lords, monarchs, and religious authorities, possibly too many, attended the Council of Acre to discuss their opinions regarding the Second Crusade. The game divided the Crusade into three sections: justification, destination, and leadership. Although every attendant shared the common goal to go on the Crusade, they all had separate objectives and so, they switched allies in order to attain these objectives. This game portrayed the disunity and disorder that arose among Christian people because monarchs transformed the war from a religious to a secular movement.

The Crusade that I picked was the 1st Crusade. I choose the 1st Crusade because it was the most interesting of all the Crusades. The different groups involved in the 1st Crusade were the Christians and the Muslims. The dates of the 1st Crusade was in between 1096 and 1099. The 1st Crusade happened in three different places and those places were, Anatolia, Near East, and in Levant. The cause of the Crusade was because there was a war between the Christians and the Muslims. The outcome of the 1st Crusade was that the Crusaders won. They got the outcome they wanted. The impact of the 1st Crusade was that the military made orders for their religion and the orders in which each member take traditional monastic vows, communal poverty, chastity, and