The Crusades: The First Crusade

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,

The Crusades were great military missions developed by Christian nations of Europe for the purpose of rescuing the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the hands of the Moslems. Jerusalem was extremely important to the Moslems and Christians at this time. Many religious events happened there, and many landmarks of both religions were located in Jerusalem. There were many Crusades some more significant than others, but in general the Crusades were very important to the spread of Christianity and religious based knowledge. The Crusades are an example of religious rebellion that is timeless and universal throughout the world.

The Crusades was a horrific time. Many people had lost their lives, friends, even family. The Crusades were a battle over the holy land, Jerusalem. The Crusaders, people who had fought in the Crusades, were Christians. They wanted the holy land because they believe that’s where Jesus had died and rose. They had fought against the Muslims who were defending themselves against the Crusaders. The Crusades had its positive outcomes as well as its negative results. Some may wonder, were the results of the Crusades more Positive or Negative? I strongly believe the outcome was mostly negative mainly because the Crusaders didn’t win the holy land, lots of lands were destroyed, and so many people lost their lives in the battle of the Crusades.

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 political and economic causes are stated in Document 3, in the Chronicles of Fulk of Chartres, which were that if you fought as a Crusader, you could gain a new home, riches,

Because of the response the people had to Pope Urban II call to arms a wave of religious enthusiasm swept across Europe. In 1096 Peter the hermit created an army of peasants and soldiers. They traveled to Constantinople, this movement was called the peoples crusade. The outcome of the people’s crusade was tragic because almost all of them died.

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.

The Crusade influenced the Middle ages in many ways, such as: adding to the Church’s control over Europe and their wealth, increased the Pope’s, or papacy’s, power, caused men and supplies to be requested frequently which resulted in many deaths (both muslim and christian), knights and barons sold their manor and lands or died which caused feudalism to become rocky in Europe, brought about the code of chivalry, people developed new ideas and began to grow smarter in what is called the “Age of Learning,” led to the discovery of new countries in the undiscovered areas of Asia, and commerce and trade grew due to the necessities that the Crusaders asked for.

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.

Before the crusades, Europeans were self sufficient, living off the their Lord’s Manor. Peasants and serfs traded using items, and there was no need for money. However, nobles needed money in order to pay for travel to the Holy Land. Thus, they allowed the serfs to pay rent in money as well as goods. In order to earn money, peasants sold their items in town, which in turn lead to growth of towns and cities. With an increase in urbanization, serfs saw an opportunity to start a better life away from manoralism. Hence, many serfs ran towards rapidly growing cities. Trade finally flourished throughout Europe, and as stated in More on the Effects of the Crusades, “Nobles and merchants enjoyed the new luxuries and wanted more of them” (Document 8). However, as trade rapidly increased, it not only brought goods from the Islamic Empire, but it also ideas. As new ideas reached Europe, people shifted interest towards education, and life in towns and cities became more popular. Additionally, the Description of the Motivation Behind the Crusaders Desire to Fight in the Holy War illustrates that many Europeans went to the Holy Land in order to “[look] for adventure, for estates, or for commercial opportunities” (Document 3). Although the crusades’ primary goal was to conquer the Holy Land, many Europeans were attracted to the crusades because new experience and opportunity. Serfs and low class citizens

This crusade is the one and only unofficial crusade of the nine. It got its name because of it’s a lack of orderliness and military experience. Pope urban the second call the apon those believers to stand up against the Muslim Turks, to take back the holy land. Well he wasn’t expecting for the help he received to be ordinary men who had almost no fighting experience. The Europeans were bothered by this, But they were sure of their victory because God would be on their side. Crusade launched in the year 1096, April to October. The Crusaders had surrendered to the Muslim forces in their six months. They return home defeated and accomplish. This was the start of a trend that would last for the next 195 years.

These people, countries and religions took part in this because they wanted to be wealthy. It is shown from this source from A Muslims View of the Siege of Jerusalem, “The Franks stripped the Dom of the Rock of more than 40 silver candelabra, each of them weighing 3,600 grams” This source explains that when people went on the first crusade people were extremely hungry for riches and economic power, as said when the Franks stole from the Dom of the Rock around 3,600 grams of silver. The wealth was extremely important back in this century due to the fact of the economic structure and the feudalism table. The peasants were the lowest on the feudalism table. This impacted their life significantly with the low amount of income they would be getting everyday. These peasants would do anything to get out of the position in the feudalism table, and become a higher rank so they would get more of an income. And for the other ranks such as Bishops, Barons and Priests, to move up and try to get into a higher positions for a larger income so they could become wealthier was important. After the first crusade a lot more people had more money. A quote from Letter from Stephen, Count of Blois and Chartres, to his wife Adele “I now have twice as much [riches] as your love had assigned to me when I left you”. This gives evidence on how the crusaders had gained a lot more riches after the crusade. Money is a secondary reason why people went on the crusade but still was a reason with evidence from people such as

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

The first crusade started in autumn of 1095. Pope Urban II initiated the first crusade by calling upon his Christians to reclaim the city of Jerusalem. The Crusade was also meant to seek revenge on the followers of Islam. The followers were accused of committing crimes against “Christendom”. Pope Urbans crusade was made possible by the work of St. Augustine on Christian Violence in the past. Many Christians joined the crusade because the Pope promised rewards for the afterlife. After the fourth century, Christianity underwent a transformation when it fused with the Roman state for which warfare was essential. St. Augustine and Pope Urban enabled violence to be an option for Christians and it can be described in this quote, “For the first time in Christian history, violence was defined as a religious act, a source of grace.” After the Pope’s Christian tour, many Christians were ready to destroy everything that stood in their way.

Many participants were lured by the fabulous riches of the East; a campaign abroad appealed as a mean of escaping from the pressures of feudal society, in which the younger sons in a family often lacked economic opportunities . On a larger scale, the major European powers and the rising Italian cities (Genoa, Pisa, and Venice) saw the Crusades as a mean of establishing and extending trade routes .