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Lifestyles: The Crusades

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The Crusades were a series of holy wars fought between Christians and Muslims over the holy city of Jerusalem in the land called Palestine. During the Late Middle Ages, a group of Muslims called the Seljuk Turks gained control of Jerusalem. When they closed the city off to the Christians and Jews, the Byzantines called for Pope Urban II for help. Since Urban wanted to regain the land from the Turks, he called for a meeting of manor lords and church leaders, asking them to help win back the Holy Land by joining the war. Urban ultimately called the First Crusade, driving at least 10,000 Europeans to save their souls because they believed if they died on the Crusades, then they will go straight to heaven. Others took this as an opportunity to …show more content…

There were also polearms being used, which were long shafts with blades mounted on its ends for knights on horseback. Other bludgeoning weapons like maces, quarterstaffs, and hammers were used to strike their enemies dealing critical bone damage. Europeans also discovered how to get past walls and use catapults to throw rocks. Their opponents, the Muslims have learned about using gunpowder from the Chinese making canons. Later into the First Crusade, the Europeans captured and controlled Jerusalem, however this did not last long. Soon the Muslims again conquered Jerusalem, making the Pope call for another crusade to take back the city. This Second and Third Crusade resulted in failures where the Europeans failed to recapture Jerusalem and the Turks held strong. When the Fourth Crusade was being called, the Europeans set to attack and steal from the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople. The needed the money to defend Constantinople from having the same situation as Jerusalem, and to save the city as well. When more crusades after that didn’t succeed, the leaders lost interest and the Muslims captured the city of Acre, ending the

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