The Crusades During The 21st Century

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II gave a supposedly important speech at the end of a church meeting in Clermont, France. In it he had called upon the nobleness of the Franks, to go to the East and assist their Christian “brothers”, the Byzantines, against the attacks of the Muslim Turks. He also apparently encouraged them to liberate Jerusalem, the most sacred and holy city in Christendom, for the Muslims had ruled it since taking it from the Christian Byzantines in A.D. 638. The Crusades were a series of wars between Christians and others to take back Jerusalem.

Three of the world’s most powerful religions had gone to war during the Crusades, the same war that is responsible for an estimated 1.7 million deaths. The Crusades were a series of Christian military expeditions that lasted through nine Holy Wars. The first crusade, in 1095, was called upon by Pope Urban II in an attempt to stop the Muslim expansion to the Holy City of Jerusalem. Through this, the Christian, Catholic, and Muslim churches will go into a time of warfare as an attempt to both show their religious superiority and have a religious expansion. The western side of Europe was the most significantly impacted by the Crusades because of the 4th Crusade, the foreign influence from the East, and Europe’s economic relations with the world.

The Crusades were Holy Wars during the 11th century that intended to expand Christian territory. The Crusades began when Christians initiated military campaigns to take control of the Holy Lands around the city of Jerusalem. Ever since the fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity had been so strong that people were able to spread it through campaigning. Different people from the time period of the Crusades have varying viewpoints on it, a few of which being that the Crusades caused fear and destruction, the violence of the Crusades were justified because of religious reasons, and that the Crusades were not only harmful to Muslims, but Jews and Christians.

The Crusades were a series of holy wars that began in 1095 CE. These wars were fought between Christians and Muslims to gain control over the sacred land. The Turks moved into the middle east during the early part of the 11th century CE. Most of the Turks served the Islamic armies and would invade land rapidly using combat forces. This alarmed the Greek emperor and caused him to seek out Pope Urban II and ask for mercenary troops to confront the Turks. The Pope called a council and had 300 attendees to show up. During this council, the Pope made a plea to free the Holy Land, which received an enthusiastic response. After this, Pope Urban II promptly waged war against the Muslims and took armies of Christians to Jerusalem to try and

Every society in every age long for order, beauty, and truth. The crusades were a series of several military campaigns, usually sanctioned by the Papacy. The Crusades were an age that longed truth. They were originally, the Roman Catholic endeavors to re-capture the Holy Land from the Muslims. The violent and often ruthless conflicts propelled the status of European Christians, making them major players in the fight for land in the Middle East. The movement is best remembered for the causes that the participants and routes of major crusades, last the effects of the crusades and the highlights of the major of the crusades.

The Crusades were a series of nine wars that began when Christians accumulated the first Crusaders to go and fight to take Jerusalem from the Muslims. But though the Crusades failed in their quest to conquer Jerusalem, there were positive and negative effects. However, it is evident in many ways the results were very damaging; in the way they impacted future relationships of Christians, Muslims, and Jews; and in how terrible the 4th Crusade ended up being.

Hoping that the Pope would accede to his wishes, Alexius looked to rectify the Turkish invasions. November of 1095 Urban II consented to Alexius' request and called all to aid of their fellow Christians who had been attacked by the Turks. Perhaps having various other reasons for aiding Alexius, the sole reason that seems to stand out is that of healing relations between the Eastern and Western Church which had been severed after the Great Schism. To what extent the Crusades were successful is debatable. Ultimately, however, the Crusades did not manage to heal the split between the Eastern and Western Church, but did manage to strengthen the Roman Catholic Church and simultaneously accelerated trade and gave huge economic gains to Western Europe. In other words, the Crusades were a successful failure.

In addition to the horrors carried out by the Seljuk horde on Christians and their shrines, the Byzantines were also begging the pope to protect their empire from other Turkish tribes. Urban II's main incentive for answering this plea for help was not entirely contingent on the letter he received from the Holy Roman Emperor, but more so from the notion that the Eastern and Western sects of the church could be unified. Moreover, they might be fused under the Pope, granting him sovereignty over the entire Christian church. This Papal hope has been revealed to historians through, among other sources, the different accounts of his speech at Clermont. For example, Guibert of Nogent recalls the pope declaring: "And you ought, furthermore, to consider with the utmost deliberation, ..., that the Mother of churches should flourish anew to the worship of Christianity, whether perchance, [God] may not wish other regions of the East to be restored to the faith against the approaching time of the Antichrist" (Peters, Guibert of Nogent, 35). Unfortunately, the Holy Roman Emperor feared his throne was in jeopardy due to the large number of crusaders that arrived to drive out the Turks. He demanded that they press on towards the Holy Land, and for reasons that need not be discussed, strong ties with the Papacy were severed soon

During the Middle Ages the Islamic faith was on the rise since its beginning in the 7th century. There were many conflicts in Spain that caused Pope Alexander II to give his blessing in their fight against the Muslims. The first call for an army was in A.D. 846 against an Arab army in Sicily that sacked St. Peters in Rome. Leo IV offered a heavenly reward to those who joined the call to action and died in battle. Al- Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the Church of the Holy Selpulchre in Jerusalem in A.D. 1009, fueling the fire of the Christians and continuing the flame of hatred amongst the Christians toward the Muslims. The papacy thought it to be in their authority to fight the enemy because of the spiritual nature of the aggressor. These

The Crusades did not happen extemporaneously. An upsurge of newly converted nomadic Muslims, called the Turks came together challenged the vulnerable Byzantine Empire. Unable to cease further development of the Turks, Pope Urban II, leader of the Roman Catholic Church, hoped to raise an army to free the Holy Land, overtaken by the Muslim Turks. The Pope got the attention of many leaders, including, bishops, abbots, lords and kings. The decision to raise an army and crusade to Jerusalem was agreed. A Holy war was launched. (Acrobatiq, 2014)

The Crusades were the first tactical mission by Western Christianity in order to recapture the Muslim conquered Holy Lands. Several people have been accredited with the launch of the crusades including Peter the Hermit however it is now understood that this responsibility rested primarily with Pope Urban II . The main goal of the Crusades was the results of an appeal from Alexius II, who had pleaded for Western Volunteers help with the prevention of any further invasions. The Pope’s actions are viewed as him answering the pleas of help of another in need, fulfilling his Christian right. However, from reading the documents it is apparent that Pope Urban had ulterior motives for encouraging engagement in the war against the Turks. The

Before invading Jerusalem or Egypt, both Muslims and Christians soon agreed on a treaty deal in 1192 ending the crusade; Jerusalem stayed under Islamic control. Pope Innocent II called for another crusade in 1198. With not not enough knights to go in to war Enrico Dandolo, the doge of Venice lead forces to aid. In 1203, the crusaders invaded Constantinople and made Alexius IV king of Byzantine Empire. Not much later, the king was overthrown by Alexius V. Crusaders responded by taking control of the city ultimately causing Constantinople to fall dividing the Byzantine Empire up in 1204.

The Crusades were Christian military expeditions undertaken between the 11th and the 14th century to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims. The word crusade, which is derived from the

The crusades were wars fought in the name of God or holy wars. The first of the crusades began in 1095 when Pope Urban the second received an appeal for help from Alexius the first, the Byzantine Emperor. Alexius wanted Urbans' help against the Turks, "a race alienated from God".

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.