Essay on The Crusades

The Crusades of the High Middle Ages (a.d. 1050-1300) was a period of conquest or rather, reconquest, of Christian lands taken from Muslims in the early Middle Ages. It is an era romanticized by fervent Christians as the time when Christianity secured its honorable status as the true religion of the world. The affect of the Crusades is still with us today. It sailed from Spain and Portugal to the Americas in the fifthteenth century aboard sailing ships carrying conquistadors who sought new territory and rich resources. They used the shield and sword of Christianity to justify a swift conquest of mass territory and the subjugation of the indigenous peoples; a mentality learned, indeed,

Besides having the Crusades being negative based on dying and losing their main objective, another example as to why the Crusades ended so negatively, is that many lands were demolished and robbed. In addition, in document 4 it indicates “ … the crusaders and the Venetians stormed Constantinople,, sacked the city, destroying its magnificent library, and grabbed thousands of relics that were later sold in Europe. From destruction, the Byzantine Empire as a political unit never recovered.” This is pertinent because it is clearly stated that they had destroyed buildings and when things are destroyed it’s rarely a good thing. Another thing that shows negativity is that after the Byzantine Empire was sacked, it never repaired. When something is damaged, it’s really bad for the people who have a relation to it. So when they had destroyed the Byzantine Empire, it must’ve hurt many people to see their city ruined. Furthermore in document B is states “Jerusalem was taken from the north on the morning of July 15, 1099. The population was put to the sword by the Franks, who pillaged the area for a week.

The Crusades were an important part in European society and history. The Crusades were a series of wars between Christians and Muslims in Southwest Asia. The purpose of the Crusades was to secure control of the Holy Land, which was considered sacred by both Christians and Muslims. The Crusades were filled with violent and often ruthless conflicts between Christians and Muslims. The Crusades contained several expeditions and impacted European society in several ways.

The Crusades were a series of wars over the holy lands such as Jerusalem between European Christians and the Ottoman Empire between the 11th and 15th centuries. They fought for many reasons such as control over religious sights, access to trade and protection of fellow christians.

Europe’s population was growing, its urban life was beginning to come back, and both import and export trade were gradually increasing. Due to this increase for the better in Europe, including human and economic resources, they could now support the Crusades. “A growing population and more surplus wealth also meant greater demand for goods from elsewhere. European traders had always looked to the Mediterranean; now they sought greater control of the goods, routes, and profits.” (Encarta, “Crusades”). That’s why material wants corresponded with religious feelings about the Holy Land and the pope’s newfound ability to gather together and focus a great enterprise.

The Crusades began when the Byzantine sovereign Alexius I Comnenus requested help against the Seljuk Turks. Seljuk Turks were Muslims that had taken control of the Asia Minor. The Crusades were “Military expeditions carried out by European Christians in the Middle Ages to regain the Holy Land from the Muslims.” (Mcgraw Hill Textbook definition) Eight major wars undertaken by Christians to recapture the Holy Land in Palestine from the Muslims. Only one was successful. Crusade means “war of the cross”. The Crusades basically stopped the whole world from becoming completely Muslim.

Many times when someone thinks about a crusade, they often think about the military expeditions that lead Europeans to want to regain back the Holy Land throughout many centuries. The start of the crusades began when the Christians wanted to earn the right to the Holy Land from the Muslims starting in the eleventh century. In addition, Pope Urban II wanted to unite the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians which led him to issue an official crusade. This lead to bloody battles between the Christians and the Muslims and still has lasting impacts on our world today especially in the Middle East. The Crusades were unjustifiable in their actions because the Christians had no reason to start a war with the Muslims, they only caused damage to other civilization, and influenced more problems for today's generations.

The Crusades which means “Going to The Cross” were joined series of religious and political events performed by thousands of Christian. Their mission statement was to free Jerusalem, the Holy Land, from Muslim which took place between the years 1096 through 1270. This mission failed because the Christians took the wrong approached which included violent instead of trying to win the hearts and mind of the people. They had the right mindset but was unable to execute the plan successfully.

For this assignment I decided to write about the Crusades. The crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians, Jews and Muslims. There were 9 different crusades over a 200 year period from the late 10th century to the late 12th century. The first crusade begin in 1096 and lasted till 1099. The purpose of the war was to help the Byzantine empire and recapture the Holy Land of Jerusalem back to the Christians from the Muslims.

When the people of Western Europe heard about the attack on the Muslims the left the manors and went to fight the crusades.

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

Therefore, he used the oppression of the Holy Land to inspire many Europeans to become crusaders. This religious propaganda was intended to unite Christian Europe. In Pope Urban II's 1095 speech, he refers to the Christians living in the Middle East and how they need urgent help. He convinces the Europeans by saying, "They have killed and captured many, and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire." He also refers to the Muslims as a "base race which worships demons".

The crusades were a series of 4 religious based wars, that took place from 1095-1291, in which Western Christians (most notably from Italy and France) invaded the Mediterranean and Middle East in an attempt to recover the holy city of Jerusalem from the Muslim people, who were seen as the enemy. From the Christian point of view, the crusades were a holy war done to reunite Christian loyalty and faith, and also to recover Jerusalem and to protect the Christian faith and people from the spread of Islam. However, the Christian retelling of this event is the most common, and there is very little showing the Muslim perspective, or for that matter, Middle Eastern perspective, including Jewish and Orthodox Christians, who also suffered greatly at

The Crusades was a Holy War between the European Christians and Muslim Turks. This war bought many motivations to those who fought. Many people were brave enough to fight for the Christian Empire. This war was for the christian soldiers to recover the Holy land.

The Muslims and Crusaders only lost lives, which was tragic and unfortunate, but they didn’t lose anywhere near enough lives for it to have a substantial or lasting impact. On the other hand, Jews losing their place in society was something that continued to affect them for decades to follow with the rise of anti-semitism during the Crusades sparked a long-lasting hatred of Jews. And while the Jews didn’t gain anything from the Crusades, the Muslims and Christians gained culturally. The Crusades lead to the expansion of trade, which lead to Christians being exposed to foreign goods, foods, and ideas. Crusaders encountered exotic food items like coffee, sugar, rhubarb, rice, sherbet, and fruits such as apricots, dates, lemons and melons for the first time (Lougheed). They also adopted irrigation techniques, the use of painkillers, algebra, chemistry, arabic numerals, and the game of chess from the Muslims (Lougheed). Muslims gained from the Crusades as well. They got exposure to new weapons and military tactics (Lougheed). To conclude, the negative consequences of the Crusades on Christians and Muslims weren’t long-term or very significant, which they were for the Jews, and the Crusades were even an advantage to them with the expansion of trade leading to the exposure to new goods and ideas, while Jews didn’t gain