The Importance Of The Christian Crusades

In 1095, Pope Urban II called for an army to go to the Holy Land, Jerusalem. This was what was later known as the ‘First Crusade’. A crusade is a religious war or a war mainly motivated by religion. The first crusade consisted of 10’s of thousands of European Christians on a medieval military expedition to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. This doesn’t mean that the first crusade was just motivated by religion. Throughout this essay, I will be suggesting the main reasons of why people went on crusades and which different people went for specific reasons and why.

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.

During this essay, I will be discussing the Crusades and what led the European Christians to participate, what goals they were trying to achieve by participating.

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.

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.

Turkish slaughter of 3000 Christians in the Holy City was the beginning of the long, awful number of brutal events in the Crusades. After the Emperor of The Byzantine, was menaced by the Seljuk Turks, he was forced to request aid from the west, and the Western European’s reply was instantaneous, “On November 1095, Pope Urban II calls for a Ccrusade in a famous speech at the Council Of Clermont” (Cline). The appeal by Pope Urban II was the thing that lit up the beginning of the First Crusade, putting a will to fight in the heart of the Christians, to recover the Holy Lands. Although there were nine crusades in total. People are likely to consider the first crusade to be the most important, because it was the beginning of the Crusades.

The first crusades are initiated when Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus requests help.The Crusades were holy wars fought between Christians in Europe and Muslims in the Middle East. The question being asked here is Were the results of the crusades more positive or negative.One reason the crusades happened on November 27, 1095, in Clermont, France, Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to help the Byzantines and to free the city of Jerusalem. Document the First Crusade states that The Crusaders first gathered in Constantinople in fall 1096.This is interesting because Document the First Crusade states that The official start date was set for August 15, 1096. Those armies that left before that time are considered

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).

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 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.

The Crusades are significant today for many reasons. The first explanation for this is that history repeats itself. Considering history repeats itself, people know to look at that time period to know what we should avoid doing, this can keep us from other tragic and pointless events much like the Crusades. Another explanation for my reasoning is that conflict still sparks between Muslims and Christians today. If more people can get educated on the topic of the Crusades and the reasons it started, society might be able to move on and make amends.

Religion was one of the main reasons for the start of the First Crusade. Islam was growing and by the time of the late 11th century Islam occupied the areas of the Holy Land which were the foundations of Christian belief. Pope Urban 2nd made his speech November 1095 urging a military expedition to aid the Christians in the east. The Pope hoped that it would unify quarrelling in Europe and unite Europe through Christianity. The response that the Pope received was enormous. In the opinion of Jean Richard, who states that it was ‘problematic’ as it ‘set off shock waves that put

11.I think that the events of the Crusades are important to us today because without the Crusades I think that that we would be where we are today at all. Such as religion, Language, and some of the methods we use today. I would say that the religion is a huge one because our main religion here in the USA and I feel that without the Crusades it could be Jewish, Muslim, or Catholic. I also think that the Crusades affected the language because we use the many words that were used during the Crusades and during that time period. I also think we use methods from the Crusades because we use things such as Peace Treaties, and we do more of talking and trying to solve the problem and in the end I think without the Crusades our world would be totally

Throughout the history of the world there have been many instances in which religion and religious beliefs have been used as an excuse to perpetrate crimes against others. This is seen in many different religions. Religions such as, Islam and their use of Jihad or holy war which is used as an excuse to kill individuals they consider to be infidels . Hinduism and their caste system in which those of the lowest caste are considered untouchables, treated horribly, and ostracized by those of higher caste. Even Christianity is no stranger to the use of religion to further their own agenda. Christianity or Christians have done this many times throughout history . We saw it during the conquest of the Americas when Spanish conquistadors took ownership of the natives through the system of Econmiendas, where natives were forced to be slaves for Spaniards as recompense for being exposed to the word of God (Gonzalez ..). We even see this today, in the 21st century; people use The Bible and their interpretation of it as an excuse to hurt others who they deem to be lesser than them. I believe one of the most infamous times in which Christians, motivated by their zealotry and righteousness, used their beliefs to ¬¬¬_____ others was during the Crusades.