The Crusades And Religious Purposes

The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II in response to a call for aid by the Byzantines. The resulting army swept through Asia Minor and into the Near East conquering several cities along the way. Upon the successful conquering of the region, the crusaders divide the land among themselves forming four crusader states: County of Edessa, Principality of Antioch, County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. This takeover and dividing of territory is incredibly similar to what occurs in the fourth crusade. Upon conquering Constantinople in April of 1204, the crusaders proceed to divide the land among themselves much like they did earlier. They divided the land

What caused the crusades is a long debated and multifaceted issue, with much contention among scholars. The cause for the crusades is not an easy or simple answer, with various explanations being offered by historians from monetary to colonial motivations (Riley-Smith, ETEP p.18-19). Although it is certain there was more than one motivation for the crusades and not every crusader went for the exact same reasons, religion is brought up as a motivation in overwhelming frequency in the contemporary writings. Religion, or more specifically the crusades as a way to fulfil one’s duty as a Christian and protect the faith, was the primary motivator for the crusaders, as shown by their own writings and words.

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.

The Crusades took place in the Middle East between 1095 and 1291. They were used to gain a leg up on trading, have more land to show hegemony, and to please the gods. Based upon the documents, the Crusades between 1095 and 1291 were caused primarily by religious devotion rather than by the desire for economic and political gain.

During this essay, I will be discussing the Crusades and what led the European Christians to participate, what goals they were trying to achieve by participating.

The main objective of the first crusade was overcome by a secondary objective which later became the reason why we call it the First Crusade. The initial objective was to respond to the Byzantine Emperor who requested western volunteers to help fight against invading Turks. In The reconquest of jerusalem and the holy land soon became the main objective of the Crusade. Pope Urban in 1095 called upon his people telling them to go jerusalem and liberate the church of God out of devotion and not for honor and wealth. Calling the crusade increased the popes standings in a papacy which was struggling at the time due to the investiture controversy. During this time, religion was very important and people took it very seriously. Jerusalem was the

The first crusade started in autumn of 1095. Pope Urban II initiated the first crusade by calling upon his Christians to reclaim the city of Jerusalem. The Crusade was also meant to seek revenge on the followers of Islam. The followers were accused of committing crimes against “Christendom”. Pope Urbans crusade was made possible by the work of St. Augustine on Christian Violence in the past. Many Christians joined the crusade because the Pope promised rewards for the afterlife. After the fourth century, Christianity underwent a transformation when it fused with the Roman state for which warfare was essential. St. Augustine and Pope Urban enabled violence to be an option for Christians and it can be described in this quote, “For the first time in Christian history, violence was defined as a religious act, a source of grace.” After the Pope’s Christian tour, many Christians were ready to destroy everything that stood in their way.

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.

Christian crusades took place between the years 1095 and 1500. According to the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, crusades were military expeditions, beginning in the late 11th century, that were organized by Western Christians in response to centuries of Muslim wars of expansion. Their main objectives were to check the spread of Islam, retake control of the Holy Land, and to recapture formerly Christian territories. The objectives of crusades were often different for Christian authorities, crusaders and their families. Crusades were centered on religious beliefs and freedoms so their primary purpose was to take back religious freedom for Christianity from the Muslim control.

Crusades are a medieval military expedition, one of a series made by Europeans to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. The Crusades were a series of religious wars sanctioned by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The most commonly known Crusades were the campaigns in the Eastern Mediterranean aimed at recovering the Holy Land from Muslim rule, but the term "Crusades" is also applied to other church-sanctioned campaigns, such as the crusade against the Cathars and the Baltic Crusades. These were fought for a variety of reasons including the suppression of paganism and heresy, the resolution of conflict among rival Roman Catholic groups, or for political and territorial advantage

Christian: The First Crusade began in 1095 amidst a climate of extreme religious fervor in Europe, but the successful launch of the First Crusade was due to far more than a religious duty to come to the defense of Christendom in the East -- and later to take the holy city of Jerusalem. Christians at the time believed Jerusalem was rightly Christian, not Muslim.

The Crusades were battles in Palestine waged from 1096 to 1212 by European Christians to take back the Holy Land. Religious devotion was a major cause of the Crusades because of the expelling of the Muslims from the Holy Land, the promise of remission of sins, and the unity of European Christians of different origins under Pope Urban II. The want of the expulsion of Muslims from the Holy Land showed that the Crusades were caused by religious devotion. In 1095, the Byzantine Emperor called for help because they were being attacked by Turks.

The Crusades were a number of wars fought by the Christians and Muslims to acquire and control the Holy Land. The goal for each side was the same take Jerusalem for there religion. During the the First Crusade the Christians claimed the Holy Land. After that it consisted of a long and terrible fight of the Muslims and Christians claiming and fighting over the Holy Land. The last crusade was The Seventh Crusade. People at the time thought the sixth crusade was the last one, but the Muslims created an insurrection that ended the peace treaty that both the Christians and Muslims had made together. After that The Seventh Crusade made its way on stage which was the end of the crusades. The only thing I can think of that motivated both sides of the war was religion. Each one had significant ties to the Holy Land and did not want to share it. I know that on the Christian side the Pope would pardon every sin that was committed by every knight during the crusade, which in fact is why some people started thinking and questioning if Catholicism was the religion to be a part of. Muslims viewed anything that the Christians did as

Subsequently, in the 11th century in Europe, the crusades were summoned by Pope Urban II, to free Jerusalem from Seljuk Turks, who harassed peaceful Christian pilgrims to the holy land. The war ended after the explicit aim of freeing Jerusalem was achieved. The subsequent crusades in the region were mainly due to the struggle for dominance between Islamic and Christian powers after the establishment of Christian Kingdoms to harvest riches following the victory of the first crusade.4 Hence the very first war