The Crusades Causes

There were eight significant Crusades, which were sparked for many different reasons by many different people that left a lasting effect to the world. These years of bloodshed were led by men of power in order to gain control over Jerusalem at the expenses of others. Throughout the 11th to 13th century, nine significant crusades occurred. There were many other small crusades throughout this period, which continued into the 16th century, until the Renaissance and Reformation when political and religious climate of Europe was drastically different than that of the middle ages (CBN). The most successful of the rebellion was that of the First Crusade. After taking Nicea, the Anatolian capital of the Seljuks, the Crusaders captured Antoich in Syria and Jerusalem in 1099 (history bits). The success of these missions allowed Crusaders to establish permanent settlements

After Pope Innocent III called for a new Crusade in 1198, Crusaders led largely by French knights marched for the Holy Land in 1202 only to be distracted by Venetian lords. These Lords convinced the Crusaders to attack Constantinople, a Christian city! The Crusaders only managed to take Constantinople and further weaken the Byzantine Empire.

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 First Crusades was a military group that was started by Christians in Europe who wanted to gain back the Holy Land that was being occupied by the Muslims. Pope Urban II preached a sermon at Clermont Ferrand on November 1095. Most histories consider this speech to be the spark the fueled a wave of military campaigns to gain back the Holy Land. This speech was meant to unite the Europeans and to gain back what was taken from them. The holy land was a small area on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The First Crusades was a very successful military expedition that was driven by religious faith to reclaim Jerusalem and other holy places that fell under Muslim control. driven by religious faith. They wanted to gain back the Holy Land that was once theirs. Arabs and the Muslim Turks otherwise known as the Seljuk Turks were the Muslims that invaded and conquered land rightfully occupied by the Christian’s. Many European men, women, and children joined the Crusades and fought in the Middle East. Pope Urban II granted forgiveness of all sins to those who died in battle thus assuring them ascendancy into heaven. Which gave those who volunteered to fight assurance. Nobles and peasants responded in great numbers to the call and marched across Europe to the capital of the Byzantine empire. Having the support of the Byzantine emperor helped make them a stronger army. The Crusaders took over many of the cities on the Mediterranean coast and built a large number of fortified castles across the Holy Land to protect their newly established territories. Soon after seizing power the Seljuks face a very different challenge to Islamic civilization. It came from Christian Crusaders. Knights from western Europe who were determined to capture portions of the Islamic world that made up the holy land of biblical times. Muslim political division and element of surprise made the first of the Crusaders assaults, between 1096 and 1099, by far the most successful. Much of

The Umayya remained a powerful clan as Islam spread under Muhammad and, after his death in 632, his two successors, or caliphs—successors of the Prophet. Still, the clan’s power had far from peaked. After the death of Umar, the second caliph, a member of the Umayya became his successor: Uthman ibn Affan (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). Uthman, however, was quickly murdered because he privileged the Meccan elite over the early converts. Shaken by his death, the Umma charged the fourth caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib, as being complacent with Uthman’s murder. Eventually Ali himself was murdered by the Umayyad’s supporters, giving rise to an Islamic state ruled by the Umayya, the Umayyad Caliphate, where the Islamic

The Umayyads were a family that took over after the death of Ali, they ruled the Islamic Empire helping spread the faith through conquering. The Abbasids were the next family that took over after the fall of the Umayyads. The Abbasids had many achievements, and helped expand the empire further. The Umayyads and the Abbasids both ruled the same areas, and they both conquered more area to spread their religion. Although they share features they also are different in their government, and the treatment of the social classes.

The first Crusades began in 1095, when armies of Christians from Western Europe responded to Pope Urban II’s plea to go to war against Muslim forces in the Holy Land. Pope Urban II wanted to go to war because he wanted to free the people of Jerusalem and the Church of the holy Sepulcher. He also wanted to defend the suffering Christians of the East, and also to marshal the energy of the constantly warring feudal lords. The first crusade was the only one that they achieved their goal during with the recapture of Jerusalem. After the First Crusades achieved its goal with the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, the invading Christians set up several of the Latin States. With the

"The Crusades: series of wars by Western European Christians to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims." (Encarta "Crusades") The Crusades first began in 1096 and ended in the late 13th century. The term Crusade originally meant that the European's would use all their efforts to regain the power from the Muslims. They wanted to retake the city of Jerusalem, which was holy to Christians because that's where the crucifixion of Jesus Christ occurred. Europeans later used it to allocate any military efforts against non-Christians. The Crusaders also created feudal states in the Near East. The Crusades played an important role of European expansion and colonialism. "They mark the first time Western Christendom undertook a military initiative

1095 – Since the Seljuk Turks too over the holy Land, Emperor Alexius I Comnenus of the Byzantine Empire asked Pope Urban II for help. The new pope saw an opportunity for power and called together the council of Clermont in France to unite the eastern and western Christians He challenged all the lords in Europe to come together and join forces to help retake Jerusalem from the Turks, whom the pope called “Infidels” - those who do not believe in Christianity By doing so, the pope promised their sins would be forgotten.

To Saladin, the Christian armies were the infidels that had to be evicted. When Saladin’s forces took Jerusalem, the call went out across Europe to launch another crusade.However, this crusade accomplished little compared to the other crusades other than a peace treaty. It was established to allow Saladin’s Muslim Empire to keep control of Jerusalem but granted Christians the right to visit the city and their shrines. The Crusaders kept control of their lands north of the city of Jaffa.

The Crusades are commonly classified as an act of Christian aggression against the weakened and fractured Muslims. There are many mistakes with this view, the Crusades were not against Arabs specifically, despite what is commonly believed. As mentioned in “Our Worlds Story” and some others, the Arabs were under attack by a steppes horde from Asia called the Seljuk Turks. The Seljuk and Arabs, despite both being Sunni Muslims had been in conflict against each other since the late 900’s. The Seljuk Turks expanded swiftly through the Middle East and Anatolia, the heartland of the East Romans, known as the Byzantines. Now, during the 1090’s Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire became under attack by the Seljuk, the Seljuk had also been treating Christians and Jewish harshly which is a sharp contradiction from the Arabs, co-existing with Judaism and Christianity due to their roots as Abrahamic religions. This is just the beginning of the Turkish reign of terror throughout the Middle ages to the fall of the Ottomans, slaughtering, Greek Orthodox Christians in Armenia, Georgia and parts of the Balkans, along with Arab Muslims, Shia Muslims, Hindu Indians, and Zoroastrians, which were nearly wiped out (out of the top 3 countries India, the United States, and Iran, with the highest Zoroastrian population, equals about 139,000 people, despite being the dominant religion in Iran for a millennia.) (Cohen)

The pope called it the Crusades, a Holy War, this title incited hope in the people that it was God 's will that they fight and defeat the Turks. Any persons who die during the war will go directly into Heaven. Using popular preachers like Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless they were able to motivate their followers by on a mission to save the world in Gods name. The followers believed that it was the end of days. The majority of the followers were ordinary, undisciplined and unarmed(Acrobatiq 2014); they were not trained soldiers. In August 1096 CE the soldiers of the Crusades arrived in Constantinople . Promised that “faith would defend them” (Acrobatiq 2014) they marched into battle. Due to their lack of training , they were slaughtered by the Turks, the others died of starvation or thirst. In 1071 the troops of the Crusades returned, but this time with trained soldiers and highly skilled leaders, such as Hugh of Vermandois of France and Bohemond of Italy. They were finally able to defeat the Turks and on July 15, 1099 the conquered and retook Jerusalem. Thus, forming 4 Latin kingdoms: Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli and Jerusalem. Although the mission was a success, the reasoning behind the Crusades was not as it seemed. Pope Urban wanted to win the war in order to convert Eastern Orthodox Christians to Roman Catholics, thus expanding his

Crusade occurred in six religious general of military operations, from Western Europe, Christian countries of the eastern Mediterranean countries launched the war. As the Roman Catholic Muslim holy city of Jerusalem fell into the hands of the majority of the Crusades against Islam, the main purpose is to recapture Jerusalem from IslamDuring the Eastern Campaign, the Church granted the cross for every soldier. Crusades are generally considered to be Catholic atrocities. Nevertheless, the Crusades, to make direct contact with Western Europe was more advanced Byzantine civilization and Islamic civilization. Such contacts, in order to pave the way Europe's

The historical books about Crusade start somehow identically- narrating pope Urban II’s sermon at Council of Clermont on November 27, 1095. Almost all seems to agree that this was the inception of the crusades. Arab-Byzantine wars before that or wars of the Christian monarchs of the Iberian Peninsula to deliver Andalus to Christian hands again are not considered to be crusade. Although the zeal was the same- to rescue “Christian Lands “from the hands of “Infidel Saracens”.

A major factor that lead to the First Crusade was the presence of a Turkish threat in the Asia Minor. The Seljuk Turks had a strong presence already and after the capture of Baghdad, they created pressure for the Byzantine Empire. After a disastrous attempt to impede the looming Turkish forces with a mercenary army of Franks, Normans, and Slavs that led to the capture of emperor Romanus IV, the Byzantines lost their control over the region. The new emperor Alexius I took further action and