The Causes Of The Crusades

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.

Knights of the Crusade were honest men as well as men of many sins. They were bribed by the church in an inconspicuous manner to fight in a war they deemed blessed by God. The priest of the Catholic

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.

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.

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.

November 27, 1095 Pope Urban ll called the people of France to help him begin a crusade to free the Holy Land from the Muslims who had the audacity to control it. First Crusade was one of the first attempts to capture the Holy Land which was successful. The First Crusade was a military expedition undertaken by Christian the Holy Land from the Muslims. But the main question is how and why were the Christian Crusaders motivated to fight in the war, was is it to do with political reason such gaining money, power, papacy.

It has been told by Albert of Aachen’s account that Jesus once approached Peter the Hermit while sleeping in Jerusalem. Jesus came to instruct the mere mortal to “…cleanse the Holy Places of Jerusalem and restore the service of the saints” (Tyerman 33). For these Holy Places held the presence of another faith; the Jews, or as the Christians would refer to them, the murderers of he who was nailed to the cross. Peter would go on to attempt to carry out Jesus’s will, which will consequently lead to the death of thousands of men, women, and children. This complex phenomenon will be known as the crusades forevermore. The concept of how the First Crusade was justified has been disputed among historians for several years. While some may believe the crusades were justified because they purified the lands, it is actually true that they fought for selfish reasons in mind and to annihilate the Jews.

With total autonomy to kill and plunder as they please alongside a godly, miracle-like victory in their first ever attempt in a series of holy wars, the Crusades stand out as a key point in the history of both Christianity and the medieval world as a whole. It is undeniable that religious devotion played a factor in the Crusades; in an era where Europe was a land of chaotic violence, a quick chance to absolve oneself from any sin was immensely appealing. Yet from the wars' very origin to their ways of recruiting and actions on the battlefield, this apparent devotion that is the heart of the Crusades is repetitively contradicted. The holy wars would never have reached the height they did – or

During the Peasants Crusade there was noble men and church officials such as monks who took the vow, however there was also many commoners including women and children. They all viewed their role as a sacred expedition in the name of God to save their fellow Christians from the enemies of the religion (Muslims in Jerusalem) but there were also many other motives that differed between the classes. Everyone involved in the Crusade seem to see themselves as the elite regardless of social class since joining the expedition and that the towns they pass on their way to Jerusalem owe them something. For example, when Walter, one of the Crusader leaders, tries to buy supplies from a Bulgarian town and is refused he takes deep offense and starts to

During the 11th century, as the crusades began, Europe’s main religion, Christianity, divided into Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox. During this period of divergence in Europe, Islam flourished. Trade helped spread religion and languages throughout Asia & Africa, while Europe paled in comparison. Given the situation that Europe was in at the time of the crusades, it’s easy to call into question the motivations behind the crusades. The first crusade, supporting the Byzantine Empire, was called for by Pope Urban II, in an apparent combination of Christian Europe behind the image of the Cross. While the results and advantages for Europe springing from the First Crusade may suggest otherwise, the Crusades were called together solely to further

Pope Umbar II delivered a speech about how the people of God needed to join forces and fight for Jerusalem. The speech spoke of how this war would be in God's name, that those who participated would receive absolution from sin and eternal glory. This speech had an incredible effect upon the Christian population, it inspired such a large amount of people, both plebeian and nobility, to rise to the cause and fight for the Holy Land, as their current army was built entirely from volunteers. While it is true that religious beliefs would have motivated many to the cause, the promise of riches in the lands of Jerusalem also led many to fight in the Crusades.

The Crusades hold a place in the canon of Western history as valiant wars against the infidel in the East, motivated by an unparalleled pious zeal. Whilst revisions to this history have considered more mundane and ordinary motives, such as a want for land or an attempt to reinforce the Peace of God movement, there is something to be said of the religious motivations of the crusaders. The words ‘conquest’ and ‘conversion’ seem ideologically charged – with conquest being what is done by temporal rulers to physical land and people, and conversion being what is done to the spiritual self, by someone who does not have anything material to gain from the action. However, it can be argued that these lines can be blurred; I wish to present the case of conquest being religiously charged, and the idea that any subsequent conversion is of little importance. By examining the geographical targets of various crusaders, I will conclude that they were more interested in conquest than conversion: but this was not necessarily for earthly reasons alone.

Even though The Crusades sharpened western Europe's passion for trade items like silk and spices from the East. The discovery of America was a mistake. Columbus, sailing for Spain, was looking for a trade route to the East. Portugal controlled the route around Africa. Columbus did not believe the earth was as big around as it is. He sailed west hoping to find a route to the Indies, not knowing there was a barrier (the continents of North and South America) preventing him from reaching his destination. The Crusades led indirectly to the discovery of the Americas in a number of ways because, The Crusades helped create a situation in which Europeans had an incentive to go exploring. The Crusades helped weaken the Byzantine Empire, whose eventual collapse made access to Asian spices more difficult. This gave Europeans a greater incentive to find other ways to get to Asia. It was in pursuit of such trade routes that Columbus "discovered" the New World and • The Crusades allowed Westerners to come into contact with scientific knowledge from classical times that had been lost in Europe but kept alive by the Muslims. The Muslims had also added to that knowledge. This contact helped to bring about the Renaissance and the advance of science, which helped make the voyages of exploration possible..

The Crusades were military fights lead by Western European Christians from 1096 to 1270. In 1096 military campaigns began to spread the religion and to wrest the Holy Land from the Muslim, these campaigns, involving often ruthless battles, are known as the Crusades. The principle purpose of the Crusades, was to recover Holy Land from the Muslims.

Since the beginning of mankind, there have been a countless number of wars that took place. When we look around world today, it drives us to think whether circumstances were always the same. Was Religion the sole purpose why blood was shed, or was it the materialistic mentality to gain land, wealth, and control trade? When you study closely you come to learn about one of the most intense wars that took place between the eleventh and thirteenth century. It started in 1095 when the Seljuk Turks were migrating into the city of Anatolia and its Emperor Alexios I requested for help. Pope Urban II, who answered the call and launched the first crusade. The Crusades were a series of wars the Catholic Church launched mainly against the Muslims, as well as some Jewish and Christian communities who had theological differences. The idea that if you died in the war you would be forgiven for all your sins and ascension to heaven would occur was endorsed by Peter the Hermit. In 1099, knights and peasants were deployed to the holy land. They successfully conquered Jerusalem in 1099 nad kept massacring its inhabitants. In 1187, Muslims under the leadership of Saladin took the holy city back. The leaders of Christendom made more efforts to recapture the city but they were unsuccessful. There are many factors as to why Christians failed to take control of Jerusalem again. Disunity amongst the European monarchs and different conflicts of interest were a major reason to why Jerusalem was never