The Crusades Essay

Many have priorly stated that history repeats itself time and time again. This can be seen throughout history but, especially so during the Crusades. This paper will discuss the parallels between the First and Fourth Crusade. We will also take a brief look at the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade and how it compares to the aftermath of the Second Crusade.

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

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,

Another final reason for people to go on a crusade was reaction to the rise of Islam. Many sources tell us that people such as pilgrims and people who worked for the church might have been scared at how powerful the Muslims were becoming; they were afraid that they would advance into different areas of Europe and start ruling the areas that they invaded by Islamic rule. A source supports this as it tells us that the Turks had been making constant advances in the East, and were now threatening Constantinople itself. Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman empires. It had a very powerful army and defended all of Western Europe because of this. If Constantinople fell, then all of Europe would be open to invasion, a vision that greatly worried European Christians. In Jerusalem, the Muslims were destroying it and capturing many people as well as killing them. Although

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

The Crusades were one of the most prominent events in Western European history; they were not discrete and unimportant pilgrimages, but a continuous stream of marching Western armies (Crusaders) into the Muslim world, terminating in the creation and eventually the fall of the Islamic Kingdoms. The Crusades were a Holy War of Roman Christianity against Islam, but was it really a “holy war” or was it Western Europe fighting for more land and power? Through Pope Urban II and the Roman Catholic Church’s actions, their proposed motivations seem unclear, and even unchristian. Prior to the Crusades, Urban encouraged that Western Europe fight for their religion but throughout the crusades the real motivations shone though; the Crusaders were power

There are two kinds of army; the professional trained sent by the Pope and Alexius I, the other was the Peasant 's army led by Hermit and Walter the Penniless. They traveled through town hollering "God wills it, God wills its" (The First Crusade). On their way traveling toward Jerusalem they massacred many Jews and Muslims that they had passed by. They robbed and killed many and demanded food and shelter form the town peoples there. Apparently they didn 't have nay actual leader, they just did whatever they wanted. Many of them were killed by angry mob because of the actions. Many of them were going on religious term but some of them just saw it as a chance to kill Jews and Muslim sin the name of Christianity. When they reached Constantinople, Alexius I had looked on at them with distrust

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.

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.

In Asia Minor, they turned to spoils and were nearly all slaughtered by the Turks. Meanwhile, according to the well thought out plan, the four principal armies were to meet at Constantinople and the regular crusade was being organized in the West. The Germans, the French from the north, Godfrey of Bouillon, and the Duke of Lower Lorraine followed the valley the Danube, crossed into Hungary and arrived at Constantinople on December 23rd,1096.

The First Crusade is the military action that was started by Roman Pope, Urbanus II in 1096. This was a military action, but also many civilian who have faith to God were joined to the war. The purpose of this war was to capture the Holy Land, and many fights were occurred between Christianity and Islam.

Peter the Hermit, a French monk, put together an army of peasants and soldiers. This army were called the peoples crusades. The army charged to Constantinople and then went to Anatolia. They took a heavy loss but Peter seems more persistent than “one and done”.

Peter’s army went through the Byzantine Empire leaving it in the ruins. However, they did not listen to Alexius’ advice for them to wait for the rest of the Crusaders. The army of Crusaders that was led by Pete crossed over Bosporus during the beginning of August. During , the first battle of the Crusaders and the Muslims, Turkish forces ceased the invading Europeans at Cibotus. Another group of Crusaders led by the notorious Count Emicho who carried out a mass slaughter if many Jews in Rhineland at 1096. That caused a huge argument a chaos between Jewish and Christian relationships. (Crusades)

To continue, the crusaders were merciless to the mostly helpless Jews and a statement was declared, “Whosoever kills a Jew will receive pardon for all his sins” (CSC, 38). The Jews had no where to flee too due to the fact that they had no money which is why their neighbors turned them over to be slain. The Chronicles of the First Crusade reads, “…they were slain like oxen, and dragged through the market-places and streets like sheep to be slaughtered, and lay naked in the streets, for the foe stripped them and left them naked” (CSC, 41). Mothers were slitting their own children’s throats so that the Gentiles would not kill their child. Even a young boy was dragged across the muddy streets by a rope around his neck because he refused to believe in anything but his own God. The Jews were so terrified that they sacrificed their children like animals in the Old Testament to show God that they still believe in hope to be saved from their tragic fate, even though most were slaughtered in the end. There was so much death

The whole saga of wars starts in the year 1095 in Claremont, France. Pope Urban the second, gives an outdoor sermon, to rally the people of Europe to go and drive the Muslims out of the Holy Land. Sadly, he never heard the news of the capture of Jerusalem. He died on July 29 1099. The Crusaders marched from Spain, France, England and even Germany to the Holy City of Jerusalem. It took four years to get to Jerusalem from France. The crusaders met little resistance along the way. Godfrey de Bullion took 40,000 troops with him from France. Godfrey de Bullion was a very well respected noble who was leader of the first crusade. He had gotten his kingdom from his uncle’s death and had left his entire kingdom to Godfrey. When Godfrey was seventeen, he led his army to kill his own father.