Holy Wars: The Crusades

A crusade was a medieval military expedition, there were several created by the Europeans to get back the Holy Land from the Muslims in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. There were four European crusades talked about; 1st Crusade, 2nd Crusade, 3rd Crusade, and the Children’s Crusade.

The Crusades was a turning point in history because it depleted the population, made the relationships between religions very strained, and introduced a variety of new ideas and products to the Europeans/Crusaders. The Crusades began after Emperor Alexius requested Pope Urban III to find him a couple of hundred mercenaries who would help him take back the Holy lands after the Muslims had taken it over and had limited their access to their biblical sites. He supported their claim to the crusades by saying that God owns all the land and that it was meant for his children, but since the Muslims stole and inhabited his land, so they must take it back. Pope Urban III gave a speech to all of western christendom, saying, “This royal city, therefore, situated at the center of the world, is now held captive by His enemies, and is in subjection to those who do not know God, to the worship of the heathens. She seeks therefore and desires to be liberated, and does not cease to implore you to come to her aid.”. His speech inspired tens of thousands of people to set out on the crusades, mostly peasants, which was a lot more than Emperor Alexius had expected. From there the Crusades began, continuing all the way to 1204 in the fourth crusade. The first Crusade was the only successful raid of them all, mostly because the Muslims didn't realize that they were attacking until it was too late. But the next three crusades undid all the progress

Introduction: Provide background information on the Crusades, restate the DBQ question, state thesis with reasons.

The crusades happened because of many reasons. First the Turks took over the holy lands. Then the Byzantine Emperor wanted to regain the holy land, so he called for the church 's help. Pope Urban II didn 't want to look weak, so he arranged for the first crusade. That is the cause of the crusades.

The Crusades were successful failures because they did not meet many of their goals, but left lasting effects. The Crusades was an attempt by the Roman Catholic Church to regain the Holy Lands from the Muslims. They believed they were fighting for god and all sins would be forgiven and defend the Byzantine Empire from the Turks. The first Crusade (1096 -1099) was successful for the Christians because they had a clear and organized religious based purpose. Crusaders the Christian armies were able to hold Jerusalem and in the process led to a massacre of Jews. Many later crusades lost sight of their original goal and created thievery and violence that tarnished the reputation of the Catholic Church.

For nearly 200 years, Christians engaged in a series of holy wars with the Muslims in what is now known as the Crusades. The First Crusade is marked by a specific act on November 27, 1095. In an open field, outside the city of Clermont in Auvergne, Pope Urban II gave an impassioned speech to the people gathered. In this speech, Urban II urged his hearers to take part in a military expedition to the East. As a result, the mighty papal-sanctioned armies captured Edessa, Antioch and Jerusalem. The Second Crusade besieged Damascus yet failed to capture it. The Third Crusade was launched to retake Jerusalem from Muslim commander Salah al-Din but was unsuccessful. However, Salah al-Din was willing to make peace with the crusaders by guaranteeing the safety of

Pope Urban II’s speech at Clermont in 1095 was a call to crusade given outdoors to the nobles, commoners and church leaders of the Western European Christians (the Franks). The people were moved by this speech and it changed history, launching the first crusade to capture Jerusalem from the Muslim Turks. After hearing Pope Urban II’s speech, thousands of Western European Christians were moved to embark on the dangerous journey and fight in the crusade. I believe the main reasons they were moved and persuaded to fight was; 1) they felt it was their Christian duty, 2) Pope Urban promised them absolution for their sins and 3) they felt compelled to defend Christianity, their holy land and the Eastern Christians.

The crusades were a set of different military actions that were sanctioned by the Catholic Church and the papacy. Their intention was to recapture Holy Lands they believed were rightfully theirs from the Muslim people that had invaded it. As any attack on a large group of people would do, every major group was affected. The Christians had their own reasons and beliefs for going on these Crusades. The Muslim people were the ones being attacked and had opposing viewpoints of what was going on. The views of the crusades were vastly different from two of the largest religious groups of their time, the Christians and the Muslims.

Historian Arnold J. Toynbee said, “Sooner of later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.” In regards to the Crusades, Pope Urban II chose to worship his own power – yet he got thousands of Europeans to worship the power of God. The Crusades were a series of campaigns in which Europeans tried to take the Holy Land from Muslims. Pope Urban II headed the First Crusade, which lasted from 1096 to 1099, after he received a request for military aid from Alexios I. Alexios I was the Byzantine ruler, and his empire was facing attacks from the Seljuk Turks. The Crusades soon overtook all aspects of European society as the promise of salvation and wealth was too great to pass up. While some may argue that

Crusade by John Wilson is a novel that displays the albigensian crusade that took place south of france in 1209-1215. The Albigensian crusade goal was to eliminate the cathars, a form of heresy to the catholic church. Catharism was a religion that was based on the belief of two gods, one as evil and the other as the good. This belief in two gods defied the reigning monotheistic catholic church. Due to the non-tolerance of the cathars pope Innocent III called a crusade after the death of the priest Pierre of Castolene. In Crusade, John Wilson creates two fictional characters and their fictional journey throughout the crusade. Wilson introduces John and Peter as the two fictional characters in his book. John and Peter are two orphans who are

When investigating my question, what were the politics that started the first Crusade, I had to utilize a couple methods that historians use when investigating a topic. Those methods used by historians are the heuristic method, which is the identification of a source's relevance to a topic, and criticism; an

Fulcher's claim that European Christians should have been protected from Muslim occupation and fierce persecution. As the Roman Realm disintegrated and the papacy lost power and power, moves in governmental issues and religions started. The papacy, under the direction of Pope Urban II, started the battle for more power and power. Amid the time preceding the Main Campaign, the Christian confidence "overwhelmed and directed regular day to day existence to a degree that can appear to be practically unfathomable to a present day eyewitness receptive to the states of mind and biases progressively secularized contemporary society. This religious enthusiasm sustained the "mind-boggling uneasiness: the threat of wrongdoing". The dread of transgression

The Crusades were expeditions done by the Roman Catholic Church in alliance with Middle-Age Kingdoms and Empires. There were a total of nine Crusades during the period of 1095 to 1291, led by Saladin, Richard I "the Lionheart" of England, Pope Urban II, Frederick I the Holy Roman Emperor, etc.

Medieval Europe was a time of war and conflict between different peoples. One of the most important military endeavors of the time was called the Crusades, which was a campaign of Christian attempts to take Jerusalem from the Muslims, who occupied it at the time. Spread over several hundred years, many bloody battles were fought over the holy city. The Crusades involved the two largest religions on the continent and impacted a massive amount of people. The battles irreparably changed the lives of everyone they touched, turning peasants to knights and nobles to slaves. These sudden changes for so many people prompted an array of religious, political, and economic changes throughout medieval Europe.

In 1198, Pope Innocent III preached the Fourth Crusade to reinstate Christian lands and recapture Jerusalem. Under Innocent III, for the first time in the history of the Crusades, the pope taxed the church in order to collect money for the war. In this Crusade, advocates followed Richard the Lionheart’s procedure and travel by sea rather than by land. As a result, crusaders leased vessels from Venice. Instead of going to the Holy Land, the Crusaders attacked Zara and Constantinople in order to acquire money to pay their debt and fulfill selfish reasons.