The Middle Ages : A Holy War Or Crusade Against Muslim Turks

The Crusades and the War on Terror: two events that occurred over 900 years from each other. Whether it’s church or state calling for a war, these two events have striking similarities. On one hand, there are two armies that fought in the name of their Gods and the dominance of their religions. In more recent time, allies of the United States came together to defeat something that threatens the entire world, terrorism. Even though these two wars seem very far apart, they are similar because of the events that inspired these wars, predominantly Christian nations are fighting Muslim nations and lastly, the fact that the United States and allied nations have always tried to involve themselves in Middle Eastern affairs.

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 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

The First Crusades and the Islamic empire were both extremely strong and successful empires. These empires took charge and conquered other empires. There are many similarities and differences to why these empires and their military forces were so successful.

The crusades were wars fought in the name of God or holy wars. The first of the crusades began in 1095 when Pope Urban the second received an appeal for help from Alexius the first, the Byzantine Emperor. Alexius wanted Urbans' help against the Turks, "a race alienated from God".

In the first crusade the byzantine emperor was afraid of the Turks, Alexius I asked the roman church for help. he thought that eastern and western Christians should join forces and make the Turks moves from Anatolia and Palestine. This movement would be called a holy war or crusade. The pope whose name was Urban II, agreed to this plan for two reasons, the first reason was because he thought that combining the east and the west war against the Turks would reunite the eastern and western churches. The second reason was because he wanted to free Palestine and Jerusalem from Muslim rule

On the 27th of November in the year 1095, Pope Urban II issued a decree to a

The Eastern world was greatly impacted by the Crusades. One way they were impacted is having created more trade, they were better economically. Document E says, “Commerce with the West benefitted both Muslims and Europeans, and it continued to flourish.” The evidence shows how trade positively impacted not only the Eastern world, but the Western world as well. A second way the Muslims were affected by the crusades was that a hatred was created between the Eastern and Western world. Document A states, “They also left a bitter legacy of religious hatred behind them.” This tells us that the Crusades created hatred between many religions. Overall the Eastern world was exceedingly affected by the Crusades, but not as much as the Western world.

The precondition for discovering America consisted of events and circumstances occurring over centuries altering the social, political, economic, and technological landscape of the world. Events dating back as far as the crusades provided a global exchange of ideas and technology, which overtime provided the tools necessary to discover the New World.

In the Crusades, some violent actions happened. The Catholics justified their violent actions in attacking cities. One way they justified their actions was through thinking they were doing an act of love for God, the Church, and the Christian pilgrims. Some church leaders actually taught that crusading was an act of love and service. Pope Eugenius

As the historian John Riley Smith points out “The First Crusade was a violent and brutal episode during which the crusaders cut out a swathe of suffering through Europe and Western Asia.” In this description of the First Crusade (1095/6- 1099) Smith makes it difficult for us to see and, or uncover any elements of pilgrimage in the crusaders actions. However, there are many different ways in which the crusades have been described, the historian Christopher Tyerman on the other hand, steers towards the idea that it is reasonable to label the Frist crusade as an armed Pilgrimage as it showed “a defining commitment to the church to accommodate the spiritual aspirations of the laity” . However, it’s worth pointing out he labels other less sanctified ways in which the First Crusade could be described. The approach to answer the question for this essay will focus mainly on whether the Crusaders joined and embarked on the First Crusade with the belief of it representing an armed pilgrimage, as it seems important to focus on the origins of the crusades in order to answer why it may be perceived so, after all every pilgrimage must start from somewhere. However, in answering this question it’s also important to consider other factors such as the role of Pope Urban II, who has been labelled by some historians as playing a pivotal role in crusaders participation and therefore the creation of the First Crusade and why it could be perceived as an armed pilgrimage, or whether an

In Pope Urban II’s speech he said, “On this account I or rather the Lord urge you as Christ’s heralds to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-solders, knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the land of our friends” (Pope Urban II) Pope Urban II was the leader of the Catholic kingdom who was asked to help the Byzantine Empire during the crusades. When Pope Urban II said, “destroy that vile race from the land of our friends” this is going completely against what Jesus Christ said. That’s saying that he wants to help get rid of Muslims from the Byzantine Empire. Christ said, “‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not top him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back”’ (Gombrich 92). Jesus Christ was believed to be the son of God so he was heavily worshipped. This quote is saying to love everyone even your enemies and to and I quote, “do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” This is the complete opposite thing to what Pope Urban II said about how people from the Catholic kingdom should help to “destroy that vile race from the land of our

According to scholars the crusades can simply be described as a series of military-religious campaigns by European Catholics to increase Christian influence in Palestine from the 11th to 14th centuries. Originally, these Roman Catholic crusades including attempts to re-capture the Holy Land from the Muslims were often led by none other then the papacy themselves. These holy leaders between the 11th and 14th century included many important figures including Pope Urban II and Pope Innocent III. These men helped in organizing the first and fourth crusades and their reasons behind doing so included a seek to serve God & Church in a bold, heroic way, to spread Christianity, and Fight Islam which they viewed as evil. All these reason behind crusading are most obvious in the first crusade led and organized by Pope Urban II. According to the crusades 1099 document stated "the Pope (Pope Urban II) exhorted the assembled multitude to wrest the Holy Land from the hands of the Infidel and assured them that God would absolve them from any sin associated with the venture." Once he said this people began to shout, "It is the will of God." Those few words from the pope are what set the stage for not only the first crusades but all the ones to follow. Once the crusade began 100,000 crusader stormed towards the gates of Jerusalem and while doing so killed thousands in their way, including many Jews. Once they finally invaded Jerusalem they obtained an easy victory and in the eyes of many this

The Crusades were a new era for Europe and the Middle East. In 1095, Pope Urban II’s called to rescue the holy lands from the unbelievers. This lead to the Europeans’ exceptional dedication to the Crusades and their beliefs that the eastern society that was in control of the sacred lands of God were unfit to occupy the lands. With the Crusades came a whole new way of life for everyone in these areas. This new way of life affected everyone, but an often overlooked group that was greatly affected is women. Females throughout history have actively participated in a vast majority of roles. The time of the Crusades was no different. Women continue to adapt too many different roles to fulfill the needs of their time and the situations they are

At the end of the eleventh century there were major conflicts between the Muslim and Christian peoples because the Byzantine emperor Alexius I lied to the Christian states in Europe. He told them that the Muslims were destroying Christian shrines in the Holy Land and were also raping Christian pilgrims to help protect his kingdom. This was the start of Christian raids on Islamic territories called the Crusades. The Crusades were brought to the holy land and surrounding areas of the Mediterranean coast from Antioch to the Sinai peninsula.