The Crusades Essay

Another aspect that contributes to the statement that the crusades were not motivated by religious factors is that the crusaders wanted more land. Many Crusaders wanted to govern their own piece of land in a new area, so they decided to fight being guaranteed a piece of land; in this era land equaled money, the more land you had, the wealthier you were—religion didn’t get you very far. By having a new plot of land, in a new area the Crusaders would be able to rise above their social status and experience a newfound wealth that would be next to impossible back in their homeland. Through this, we can see the prime motivation of the Western European’s commencement of the crusades was their aspiration for land. Even Pope Urban II, an example and leader for all the people, wanted to fight just to get the Holy Land back. So if the prime example for the people, a leader that everyone looked up to was demonstrating greed and voracity then it would only be natural for his people to follow. Not only did Pope Urban II and officials express tremendous amounts of self-indulgence, but they very well knew what was going on beforehand; the selection mentions that they worked to “prepare” the people for a crusade by changing conditions within their society and economy. The changing of economic aspects portray that the Crusaders were unhappy with their current state of wealth and the easiest way to fix that was to

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.

The Crusades were a bloody war that the church deemed holy and necessary for salvation of the knights soul. The Crusades are a highly controversial and very dark stain on the Catholic church and Hierarchies past. The war was brought to the church from there Roman allies who they had tense dealings with. The where seeking aid in the fight against the muslim turks. The church decreed there act holy and justified. The people who were under the churches thumb had no objections to the slaughter that their beloved God had suposably justified.

After the Crusades finally ended, the main impacts on Western Civilization were mainly religion, political, and economically. Feudalism ended and Kings made stronger governments. Spain, England, France were created. Jews were discriminated against and Arabs became extremely hostile. Long distance trade increased other than to Italy.

European Christians fought against the Muslims in the crusades because they wanted control of the Holy Land to increase their connection with god, wealth and power. The crusades were a series of 9 battles called the caused by Christians wanting control and power over the Holy Land to provide them with greater power.

The age leading up to the first crusade is detailed by many current historians, as well as Pope Urban II, as a time period where inhabitants "rage[d] against [their own] brothers and cut each other [to] pieces" (Peters, Baldric of Dol, 31) for economic and social advancement. In spite of these references, many people today believe that the Pope instigated the crusades for the sole reason of reclaiming Jerusalem. However, other motivations such as supplementary religious factors and the chance for economic, social, and political gain also played major roles. These motivations were not experienced supremely by the Pope; in fact he needed to instill these inspirations in all Christians to evoke their will to fight. The holy land had long

In the year of 1095, Pope Urban ii called a meeting in the city of Clermont. His discussion creating a deadly manor of war called the “Crusades” to take back the “Holy Land” for the greedy Christians, “deus vult!” or “God wills it!” which was said by Pope Urban ii. Crusaders were more bloody and wicked than you’d think they were after you read this report. They’ve caused such horror to the Muslims and Jews that you’d cringe until you’d forget about the whole thing. This is why I will be creating an argument about this report.

In The middle of the Eleventh Century The tranquillity of the eastern Mediterranean seemed assured for many years to come, but little did the people know what was ahead . This, thus embark us on a journey back into the First Crusade. In this paper I will be discussing the events that lead up to the first in a long line of crusades. I will also be mentioning the lives of some of the crusaders through letters that they wrote. The crusades were a time of confusion for most people, yet today we look back at them as a turning point.

From the perspective of the Byzantine Empire the motivation for the First Crusade was a calling from God to go forth and cleanse the holy land that had been captured by the Muslims. The Byzantine Empire was where idea the First Crusade initially began. However, the people were not motivated on their own to go attack and try to reclaim their holy lands from the Muslims. A primary motivator was Pope Urban II’s speech at Council of Clermont. It is evident that Pope Urban II was an articulate and persuasive motivational speaker because he was able to convince the Franks that it was God that was calling them to restore the land that was theirs and ultimately God’s.

Religious factors in the first crusade were significant and can be argued as a reason for the campaign’s success. However, it is more down to a combination of different factors to why it was so successful, when compared to the later more unsuccessful Crusades. The time of the First Crusade, medieval Europe was a place of hardship, with frequent famine and plagues with many wanting to escape the idea of normal life. With the start of the First Crusade many responded with extreme enthusiasm and it really highlighted the religious hysteria in Europe at the time. What was to follow was a campaign built upon the foundations of Christianity, which would lead to the persecution of another religion and the deaths of thousands of Muslims, Jews and Christians alike. Religious factors are the reason for the success of the Crusade and can be seen to be the reasons for continuous successes throughout the campaign.

According to scholars the crusades can simply be described as a series of military-religious campaigns by European Catholics to increase Christian influence in Palestine from the 11th to 14th centuries. Originally, these Roman Catholic crusades including attempts to re-capture the Holy Land from the Muslims were often led by none other then the papacy themselves. These holy leaders between the 11th and 14th century included many important figures including Pope Urban II and Pope Innocent III. These men helped in organizing the first and fourth crusades and their reasons behind doing so included a seek to serve God & Church in a bold, heroic way, to spread Christianity, and Fight Islam which they viewed as evil. All these reason behind crusading are most obvious in the first crusade led and organized by Pope Urban II. According to the crusades 1099 document stated "the Pope (Pope Urban II) exhorted the assembled multitude to wrest the Holy Land from the hands of the Infidel and assured them that God would absolve them from any sin associated with the venture." Once he said this people began to shout, "It is the will of God." Those few words from the pope are what set the stage for not only the first crusades but all the ones to follow. Once the crusade began 100,000 crusader stormed towards the gates of Jerusalem and while doing so killed thousands in their way, including many Jews. Once they finally invaded Jerusalem they obtained an easy victory and in the eyes of many this

While the crusades were indeed filled with brutality that makes the modern reader cringe at the very idea of them. The crusades very much did serve multiple purposes in Mediaeval Europe. One of these main ones most definitely bring uniting the fragmented countries against one common enemy. In this case, the issue of the holy land being under Islamic control. (Tyerman, Introduction. Page 1)

Christians and Muslims had fought in a series of wars for almost 200 years. The biggest motivation for Crusades between these two religions was to gain control over the Holy land, Jerusalem. The Christians wanted the holy land, "Jerusalem", because this is where Jesus and taught scriptures and biblical stories to citizens that wanted to listen. The Muslims wanted Jerusalem because this is where the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven from the Temple Mount during his night journey. In this reading the biggest debate about the crusades is whether it was caused by religion devotion or by the desire for political and economic gain.

A significant cause for the Crusades was Pope Urban II’s call to fight the Seljuk Turks and defend Constantinople in order to unite Europe. Pope Urban II explained to his people that Alexius of the Byzantine Empire needed help in defending Constantinople from the Seljuk Turks and asked for all of the true Christians to join in the fight. The Pope used this as an opportunity to unite Europe. Catholic forces were fighting with each other all over Europe and the Pope came up with an idea to get all that war out of Europe and send it somewhere else, Jerusalem ; fighting together as one big army. He promised that all of those who wanted to volunteer would be repented of their sins. Feudal lords, knights and peasants were convinced by Pope Urban II’s speech that it was their duty as Christians to fight in the

During the time period of 600 CE to 1095 CE, there were multiple groups raiding and attacking other civilizations to strengthen their own empires. Islam was spreading rapidly and the faith was taking control of land that had been ruled previously by the Roman empire. It eventually arrived in Western Europe and the Muslim Caliphs took control. In 600 CE, the Muslims entered Jerusalem and took over. The different Muslim groups were attempting to conquer the lands in Western Europe. The Crusades were multiple Holy Wars fought from 1096-1270 CE between the Christians and the Muslims. The Crusades were ultimately caused by the various religions who all wanted control of Jerusalem along with the Great Schism and how it divided into two churches. Finally, the Pope had a multitude of reasons he used to call for the first Crusade.