In recent decades the First four Crusades have become a major era of historical interest, which has led historians to try and explain these dynamic events. While much of this era has remained a mystery, recent years have allowed historians to learn more and answer some of the mysteries of the First four Crusades. Motivated by anything from the prospect of spiritual freedom to the promise of new land, the crusaders invaded and overtook cities from Muslim forces. Contributing factors such as stolen land and vengeance of mistreated Christians fed the fire that fueled the crusaders will to fight. Outcomes varied from crusade to crusade, as did the response from the Islamic state 's, all of which shaped the world we live in today.
In The middle of the Eleventh Century The tranquillity of the eastern Mediterranean seemed assured for many years to come, but little did the people know what was ahead . This, thus embark us on a journey back into the First Crusade. In this paper I will be discussing the events that lead up to the first in a long line of crusades. I will also be mentioning the lives of some of the crusaders through letters that they wrote. The crusades were a time of confusion for most people, yet today we look back at them as a turning point.
The Crusades were a succession of many wars, which “originally” started as a request from Alexius II for aid after a devastating war in the Battle of Mazikert. This war had taken its ravishing toll on the Greeks in the Middle East. The Battle of Mazikert was a result of the expansion and occupancy of two conflicting empires that
The Crusades of the High Middle Ages (a.d. 1050-1300) was a period of conquest or rather, reconquest, of Christian lands taken from Muslims in the early Middle Ages. It is an era romanticized by fervent Christians as the time when Christianity secured its honorable status as the true religion of the world. The affect of the Crusades is still with us today. It sailed from Spain and Portugal to the Americas in the fifthteenth century aboard sailing ships carrying conquistadors who sought new territory and rich resources. They used the shield and sword of Christianity to justify a swift conquest of mass territory and the subjugation of the indigenous peoples; a mentality learned, indeed,
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 a series of religious wars that though they took place centuries ago, they are still often discussed today. The crusades were a religious war between the Christian and Muslim states that lasted years. “The Byzantine Empire, which had thrived spread over the coastal areas of the Mediterranean…now found itself increasingly challenged by the navies and pirates of Isla. The contest between these two sides were to generate seeds of the first Crusade” (Paine 8-9). Some claim that the Crusades offered nothing but a negative impact to western civilization, however, that may not be the case. On the contrary, the Crusades provided a positive short-term and
The Crusades were one of the most prominent events in Western European history; they were not discrete and unimportant pilgrimages, but a continuous stream of marching Western armies (Crusaders) into the Muslim world, terminating in the creation and eventually the fall of the Islamic Kingdoms. The Crusades were a Holy War of Roman Christianity against Islam, but was it really a “holy war” or was it Western Europe fighting for more land and power? Through Pope Urban II and the Roman Catholic Church’s actions, their proposed motivations seem unclear, and even unchristian. Prior to the Crusades, Urban encouraged that Western Europe fight for their religion but throughout the crusades the real motivations shone though; the Crusaders were power
Conflicts, clashes, misunderstandings, and misconceptions represent an image of ignorance, sometimes, or a sign of prejudice. When it comes to religions, the situation escalates to be a real serious issue. Islam, and since its existence, has faced many struggles with many people who think of it as an outrageous religion that pushes people to kill, treat unfairly, and think criminally. However, Islam by name is a message of peace. The word Islam was taken from the word Salam, which simply means peace in Arabic. Additionally, the ideal of this religion is to worship one god –Allah– and believe that Mohammad is his messenger. Many of the legalizations of Islam call for concord and peace and fight a common wickedness; nevertheless, there are still some many people who are not aware of what the real meaning of this religion is and how it is rooted in Judaism and Christianity. Therefore, it is a religion that belongs to the same tree of the other divine religions mentioned before. Anyhow, since Islam and Christianity or Islam and Judaism are divine religions, why did they both exist? Why was not there only one religion? Well, a question like that cannot be answered with a simple answer. It is a matter of some many historical incidents that created that division in these religions. Overall, Islam and Christianity are very similar and compatible in many different ways although they have major differences.
The Crusades were a sequence of religious and political wars fought for over 200 years for power of the Holy Land. Originally the purpose for the Crusades was to take the Holy Land and Jerusalem away from the Muslims. However, the people who partook in this series of wars were not only driven by their faith, but they were also motivated by their own economical gains. Numerous Crusaders were inspired by the chance to gain wealth, land and power. At the same time the Roman Catholic Church saw the Crusades as an opportunity to gain the Holy Land for Catholics. In all, these examples show that the Crusades were not only driven by religious beliefs but by economic and political gain as well.
he subject of the crusades is still a very controversial topic that spans across various time periods and has religious, social, and political implications. The first crusade started off as a widespread pilgrimage that ended as a military expedition resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem in 1099. The crusades initiated from a call from help from Alexius for the protection of Constantinople and the recovery of Anatolia. For centuries textbooks have repeated with routine regularity, that the immediate cause, of the Crusades was the Turkish conquest of the Near East, which apparently was a very real threat to Christendom, that had to be countered by military action. With this in mind, the primary purpose of this essay is to identify the various reasons that contributed to the start of the first crusade, while disproving the fact that the first Crusade was a response to a military threat. In discovering the true cause of the first crusades it is necessary to examine it from all aspects from the start to the finish.
From 1095 to 1204, there was a war between the Christians and the Muslims for the Holy Land, Jerusalem. They fought bloody battles all over Europe, and these battles were called the Crusades. In the end, the results of the Crusades were more negative than positive. Two negative results were the bitter relationship between Christians and Muslims and how both Christians and Jews used religion to kill everyone.
The rise of Christianity and Islam happened during a turbulent time in history, when major civilizations like the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire were in decline due to political infighting, disease, and outside barbarians constantly applying pressure. Christianity was adopted in the heart of the Roman Empire, as a way to continue the influence of Rome, while not being able to control all of Europe militarily. (Rise of Christianity, 2012) Therefore, early Christianity, as adopted by Rome, was about maintaining influence in the continent through the use of priests and monarchs under a feudalist system of control. The main benefit of Christianity came from its use of Latin and the Bible, a common language across the old Roman Empire, as well as a new technology in books that enabled priests to record extremely deep and convincing stories in an easily index able format. The Roman pagan religion used tablets for its mode of communication, tablets which could not hold very much information at all, and that lost legitimacy compared to the life of Jesus and the depth of the biblical writing style. Christianity rose during an age of danger in Europe, and the feudal system with knights and castles was simply the most beneficial system of governance that humanity had. (Stark, 1996)
Going against modern day religious beliefs, in 1095AD the Christians went to war to claim the holy city of Jerusalem, massacring the Muslims in a bloody attempt to worship their God. Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont inspired by claims made by the Byzantium Emperor encouraged the Christians to partake in the First Crusade in an attempt to liberate Jerusalem. The religious and economic factors were the most relevant to cause this crusade, with some influence from desired political gain and little from social factors unrelated to religion. The immediate consequences were positive for the Christians and negative for the Muslims, but the First Crusade launched an ongoing conflict between the Christians and Muslims which had positive and negative consequences for both sides. There are a number of relevant modern sources which examine the causes and consequences of the First Crusade, but, while there are many medieval sources, they do not explicitly discuss the causes and consequences of the war. In order to fully comprehend the First Crusade, it is necessary to analyse the religious, economic, and political factors, as well as the short-term, long-term, and modern consequences.
The Crusades: A Short History, written by British Historian Jonathan Riley-Smith, offers a broad overview of this part of the medieval era, but he also explores how historians have attempted to explain these events in modern terms. Riley-Smith also makes sure to note all major contributors to the Crusade movement and their personalities. Numerous scholars have wondered whether this was a political or religious mission. This helps to spark the question of why people would leave their homes and their families to risk their lives invading a land that was thousands of miles away for religious reasons. In his book, Riley-Smith makes this era come alive for the modern reader. He does