The First Crusade Ever Happened

The first Crusade was an event that happened between the times of 1096-1099 and played a very important part in Medieval England. The reason that the First Crusade happened was because they were trying to capture Jerusalem from the Muslims. They didn’t want the Muslims to have Jerusalem because it belonged to the Christians. The First Crusade was a major event that happened and it still talked about today. Jerusalem was captured by the Muslims, Christians were mad about this when they found out. Many people also volunteered to fight on the First Crusade.

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.

1. Just in case you guys don’t about the history of why the crusades are happening, it’s all about Jerusalem and the Holy Land, or Palestine, have a complicated history. The Holy Land sits at the intersection of three continents, near the birthplace of some of the world’s oldest civilizations. It also borders the Mediterranean Sea, a major artery of conquest and trade. The region is valued as much for its location as for its religious history. The location itself may have been reason enough for people to settle there. In turn, those people developed civilizations that gave rise to the religions that have spent centuries competing for the sacred soil. The three competing monotheistic faiths-Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-met in Jerusalem. Despite their common roots, the differences among the three religions-and their peoples-often sparked conflict.

According to the Christian Faith Jerusalem holds significant religious importance due to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and many other important religious sites. This is detailed in The Capture of Jerusalem by John France “Jerusalem had a special place in the religion and culture of medieval europe for it was the place Christ had died and his empty tomb in the church of the holy sepulchre was the very symbol of christian belief”. Pope Urban II called for the crusades to secure these sites for christians in that area and around the world. These sites also hold a religious importance to the Islamic Faith to this day, which is also seen in The Capture of Jerusalem “For Jerusalem is sacred to islam: its name al-Kuds, ‘the city of the sanctuary’, refers to the important shrine we now call the

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 main objective of the first crusade was overcome by a secondary objective which later became the reason why we call it the First Crusade. The initial objective was to respond to the Byzantine Emperor who requested western volunteers to help fight against invading Turks. In The reconquest of jerusalem and the holy land soon became the main objective of the Crusade. Pope Urban in 1095 called upon his people telling them to go jerusalem and liberate the church of God out of devotion and not for honor and wealth. Calling the crusade increased the popes standings in a papacy which was struggling at the time due to the investiture controversy. During this time, religion was very important and people took it very seriously. Jerusalem was the

he subject of the crusades is still a very controversial topic that spans across various time periods and has religious, social, and political implications. The first crusade started off as a widespread pilgrimage that ended as a military expedition resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem in 1099. The crusades initiated from a call from help from Alexius for the protection of Constantinople and the recovery of Anatolia. For centuries textbooks have repeated with routine regularity, that the immediate cause, of the Crusades was the Turkish conquest of the Near East, which apparently was a very real threat to Christendom, that had to be countered by military action. With this in mind, the primary purpose of this essay is to identify the various reasons that contributed to the start of the first crusade, while disproving the fact that the first Crusade was a response to a military threat. In discovering the true cause of the first crusades it is necessary to examine it from all aspects from the start to the finish.

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.

The First Crusades was a military group that was started by Christians in Europe who wanted to gain back the Holy Land that was being occupied by the Muslims. Pope Urban II preached a sermon at Clermont Ferrand on November 1095. Most histories consider this speech to be the spark the fueled a wave of military campaigns to gain back the Holy Land. This speech was meant to unite the Europeans and to gain back what was taken from them. The holy land was a small area on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The First Crusades was a very successful military expedition that was driven by religious faith to reclaim Jerusalem and other holy places that fell under Muslim control. driven by religious faith. They wanted to gain back the Holy Land that was once theirs. Arabs and the Muslim Turks otherwise known as the Seljuk Turks were the Muslims that invaded and conquered land rightfully occupied by the Christian’s. Many European men, women, and children joined the Crusades and fought in the Middle East. Pope Urban II granted forgiveness of all sins to those who died in battle thus assuring them ascendancy into heaven. Which gave those who volunteered to fight assurance. Nobles and peasants responded in great numbers to the call and marched across Europe to the capital of the Byzantine empire. Having the support of the Byzantine emperor helped make them a stronger army. The Crusaders took over many of the cities on the Mediterranean coast and built a large number of fortified castles across the Holy Land to protect their newly established territories. Soon after seizing power the Seljuks face a very different challenge to Islamic civilization. It came from Christian Crusaders. Knights from western Europe who were determined to capture portions of the Islamic world that made up the holy land of biblical times. Muslim political division and element of surprise made the first of the Crusaders assaults, between 1096 and 1099, by far the most successful. Much of

Patrick Geary’s “Readings in Medieval History” contains four accounts of the invasion of the Middle East by the Europeans in 1095 A.D. These accounts all cite different motives for the first crusade, and all the accounts are from the perspective of different sides of the war. The accounts all serve to widen our perspective, we hear from the Christian and Middle Eastern side of the conflict. Fulcher of Chartres claims, Pope Urban the Second urged all Christians to intervene in the “East” at the council of Claremont, saying it was a sign of “Strength of good will”. (Readings in Medieval History, Geary, page 396).

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.

Known for his speeches, Hitler was a big believer in using words to change opinions. He said in one speech that “It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge.” By using faith for his benefit, he gave people something to fight for, and connected them and their faith to their “mission” by using propaganda, and speeches, and never stopped persuading people to join his movement. Another person who used faith to help accomplish a goal was Pope Urban the second, the initiator of the first Crusade. Pope Urban said that God wanted the Christians to fight for Jerusalem during the Crusades, and gave the people a reason to fight. He said to “Undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the Kingdom of Heaven!”, and gave his people a chance to “redeem” themselves of their sins. Both Pope Urban and Hitler tried to pulverize the Jewish nation. The Crusades, similar to the Holocaust, was a war against everyone different led by stubborn leaders; however, unlike the Holocaust, the Crusades were part of a religious war, led by a religious Christian leader.

The Crusades were a series of holy wars that were fought between Muslims and Christians and the main goal of these wars were to recover Jerusalem. The Christians wanted it because it is where they believe that Jesus was born, the Muslims wanted it because it is where they believe prophet Muhammed rose up to heaven. There were three main Crusades (first, second, and third crusade)

The Christians were intolerant of Islam and wish to impose “their right way” “It is precisely that requirement of shared worship that has been the principal source of suffering for individual man and the human race since the beginning of history. In their efforts to impose universal worship, men have unsheathed their swords and killed one another. They have invented gods and challenged each other. Discard your gods and worship mine or I will destroy both your gods and you!” (Dostoyevsky). This is a practical summation of the crusades, the Christian God versus the Muslim God with both sides stubborn about the other. Using the cause of retaking the holy land, the crusades were a series of wars lasting a span of nearly 200 years. In 1095 Pope Urban II called for the nations of Europe to attack Muslim armies to regain the holy land of Jerusalem. Over a four year campaign the first crusade achieved its goal of controlling the holy land, the conquerors then set up four city-states; Jerusalem, Edessa, Antioch, and Tripoli (History of Crusades). In response, the Muslims declared a holy war or “Jihad” against the Christians to regain their lost

However, the events of the First Crusade were extremely complex and much information has been overlooked by historians for years. While these instances of supposed “torture” or political unrest may have been present, they were not directed only at Christians. At the end of the 11th century, politics in the Muslim world created a lot of violence and unrest in their region that Christians may have gotten caught up in. One of the only actual forms of direct persecution of Christians was the destruction of the Holy Sepulcher. This event, which was ordered on 28 September 1009 A.D. by Al-hakim, destroyed the church which was built on the tomb where Jesus laid, along with other synagogues and religious texts. Al-hakim was considered, by many,