The Causes Of Violence In The Middle Ages

In today’s society, we see violence as a way to cope with all types problems. Humans have used violence as a way to resolve issues since ancient times. The poem “Beowulf” was written between the eighth and eleventh century by an anonymous author. The poem recounts the story of a brave warrior, named Beowulf, who battles three great monsters. Two of the monsters, Grendel and Grendel’s Mother, terrorize the people of Daneland and the third monster, the Dragon, lives in Beowulf's homeland. The epic poem “Beowulf” illustrates and normalizes the idea of violence within the Pagan Warrior Culture.

(T) The Crusades negatively affected the world, rather than being a benefit, as intended. (A) The Crusades caused a tension between European inhabitants of the time. (B) The Catholic Church’s image was negatively impacted as a result of the Crusades. (C) Lastly, the primary objective of the Christians was to recapture the homeland; the Christians failed to recapture the land in the end. (T) Because of these three reasons, the world was negatively impacted by the Crusades.

War is an inescapable pattern in history. The world is constantly in a state of war. In America, we see a war amongst ourselves with racism, discrimination, and hate crime. These wars seem meaningless, and reveal that humans have an ingrained yearning for violence. While reading the novels Beowulf, told from the perspective of a hero, and Grendel, told from the perspective of the monster, the innately violent nature of humans becomes apparent.

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

In this TEDTalk, Steven Pinker introduced an interesting trend in societal violence. The talk began by presenting fax that showed a dramatic decrease in the amount of violent crime beginning as far back as the earliest human hunter-gatherers. In many places during that time period, the chances of dying at the hands of another human were as high is sixty percent. Although the media and people tend to believe we are living in a time of extreme violence, we are actually living during one of the most peaceful times in human history. Even though the 20th Century witnessed tragedies such as the Holocaust, Rwanda, Stalin’s mass executions, and two World Wars, the chances of a human by violent means was less than three percent.

Religious terrorism is regularly portrayed as demonstrations of unreasonable, silly and indiscriminate violence, along these lines offering few, if any what really spur religious terrorism measures. This presumption about religious terrorism comes from different nations, groups and individual’s. Unbalanced regard for prophetically catastrophic terrorism, and an absence of qualification between religious terrorism and its mainstream partner. This article, in this manner, expects to do four things: characterize and separate religiously inspired terrorism, confidence, and activism along the lines of faith and violence. Furthermore, prescribe a scope of religion, confidence, and terrorism systems in view of these perceptions.

England has a reasonable repute for cruelty. A mutual awareness of the Middle Ages is that society was abused by continuous violence and social indifference against fatalities by the insistent dignity of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse continuously pushing back and forth across Europe.

Many of the ancient and historical conflicts are believed to be connected to religion in a various ways and proven that religion can be used as an excuse for violence. For instance, The Crusade Wars ended in the brutality of both Christians and Muslims during the mass dispute (Burton 1984). The Jews have perpetrated massacres through nations for the solitary reason to attain their belief. During the reformation of Christians thousands of people were killed because of their religion. In Yugoslavia, the war in 1991 pitted Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Catholics against each other in a brutal combat (Avalos 2005). Also, thousands of monks were being persecuted in Burma

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.

Islam is not the only religion that use violence for instance, the Christian use violence to destroy Islam. In the article crusades the idea of violence was demonstrated when pope urban II send innumerable amount of solder to “Rise in a spirit of cruelty against the jewish people scattered through the cities and slaughtered ’the women, also, and with their swords pierced tender children of whatever gender and sex.” The soldier did not stop there they also “Destroy the houses, synagogue of the jews and divided among themselves a very, large, amount of money [that once belonged to the jews].” Christians were influenced by Pope Urban II to assassinate million of people. It is estimated that about 1.7 million of people died during the crusades.

The Western Roman Empire was plagued with violence and warfare, both before Medieval Italy, and well after. Medieval Italy was created through warfare, and although these violence outbreaks are most prominently displayed by wars and battles, much of the violence occurred within the community in the form of protests, riots, and political outbreaks. Each political outbreak, violence, and treaties brought newfound rule and therefore a new influence on life during this era. This research essay will discuss the numerous wars throughout Middle Ages, political shirts, and their results, with the overall topic determining how each impacted and influenced the era.

Violence throughout our time has been evident ever since the beginning of our human species. From verbal to physical, one will not go through his/her lifetime without understanding the violent nature of other people. Richard Wilkinson brought up a point that “More unequal societies tend to be more violent” (Wilkinson 2). Wilkinson shows that there is a prominent correlation between income and homicide. Lower incomes shows higher rates of homicide. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens shows how violence can flourish due to the inequality seen in the lower classes. Dickens uses violence to portray that a society filled with inequalities can lead to violence.

Anglo-Saxon culture accepted violence from a man, but when a woman was violent the behavior was deemed monstrous. Queens had courtesies that they were expected to observe such as being peace weavers, cup passers (613-15) and “a balm to their battle scarred Swede” (62-63). They mourned the lost by crying and singing this is seen in the performance by the minstrel who then ordered her own son’s body (1118-1119).This was the formal way for a queen to mourn. If there was a cause of death by violence then the avenging was left to the king and his retainers.

The history of human nature has been bloody, painful, and even destructive. Nonetheless, before understanding their environments humans used to kill each other based on their own mindset on the ideal of violence, and what it actually meant. Pinker describes narratives of violent acts from the past, that today are foreign to us. He gives us a tour of the historical human violence and how the violence in human nature has changed throughout time. The main idea from Pinker’s book,“The Better Angels of Our Nature ', is “for all the dangers we face today, the dangers of yesterday were even worse.” He provides its readers with explicit violent stories beginning from 8000 BCE to now, and describes how violence has evolved from a blood lost to more of a peaceful existence.

The Middle Ages began as a time characterized by great violence and strife amongst peoples who commonly faced issues using direct violence. However, as time passed, these groups of people grew into societies, which developed into systems more familiar to contemporary landscapes. Settled agriculture and emerging commerce linked more people together in structured organizations, encouraging the spread of ideas and widespread peace. Often, this new connectivity furthered inclusivity and eventually advanced new ideas and systems of solving conflicts. In other instances, societies remained intolerant to foreign notions and ideas, continuing to react with instant violence and discrimination. The varying methods of conflict resolution during the Middle Ages can be seen through the development of representative governmental systems, increased study through the establishment of Universities, and religious confrontation involving heretics and crusades.