Spanning multiple centuries and taking place in a majority of the land of eastern Europe and the Middle East, the Crusades, which began in the year 1096 A.D. and ended in 1291 A.D. were a time of religious warfare that resulted in the deaths of about three million people-- about one percent of the world population at the time. The leading motive for this bloodshed was the claiming of control of the city of Jerusalem, a city with holy sites from all of the religions involved-- Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. The city of Jerusalem contains within it, four quarters representing the three religions. Christianity has two quarters because one of them, the Armenian quarter, is also considered Christian. Judaism and Islam both have 1 quarter to themselves …show more content…
And that is exactly what happened when a group called the Seljuk Turks took over the city and all of Palestine, the surround area. Fearing the impending aggression by the Seljuk Turks on the Byzantine Christians, emperor Alexios, in the year 1095, decided to call for help from Pope Urban II. This action by emperor Alexios officially would start what would come to be known as the first of eight crusades. While the merits of the first crusade were mostly rooted in religion, its practice and the control of Jerusalem, most of the other crusades were ruthless, brutal, and only vaguely motivated by religion. The crusades should be remembered as a negative time in history because of their brutality against minorities (Jews, Byzantine Christians) and their only marginal motivation by religion which caused the suffering of many innocent people and a lack of overall success for followers of the Christian …show more content…
Going back to the actions of Pope Urban II guaranteeing entry into heaven for those who joined the crusades, the crusaders were able to attack innocent people for their own needs such as wealth and personal glory. As mentioned before, while the first crusade was mostly motivated by religion, the following seven crusades had some other basis for the suffering of thousands of innocent people. Solomon Bar Simson again writes “[they] destroyed the houses, looting and plundering; and they took the Torah Scroll, trampled it in the mud, and tore and burned it…” (Solomon Bar Simson). The key words within that quotation are “looting and plundering”, both of which represent the fact that there were other motives for the crusades outside of just reclaiming the city of Jerusalem. Being away from their homes and territories, the crusaders were able to get away with more heinous actions because of the fact that the regulations for actions such as looting, pillaging, and plundering were a lot less common and enforced in the middle east by the leaders of the crusaders. In other words, there was no way to fully keep in check the crusaders for their actions against other groups because the amount of people who actually enforced law and order during the war were minimal. Adding on, according to Ibn Al- Athir, “the franks stripped the
In 1095 on November 27 in Clermont,France, Pope Urban the II called for a Crusade to help the Byzantines and free the city of Jerusalem. The official start date was set as August 15, 1096. This order little did he know would be the cause of a battle that turned into 9 war’s that last for nearly 200 years. This event in history clearly has a outcome that is way more negative than positive. Have you ever imagined being in the middle of a 200 year war people dropping like flies just because of an argument over one city?
The Crusaders didn't always attack the Muslim Empires. Sometimes they attacked each other. Document 1 states that, “In Europe, Crusaders sometimes turned their fury against Jews, massacring entire communities.” This is relevant because the Crusaders were supposed to be fighting the Muslims to get land, but instead they decided to attack the Jews and destroy their communities.
Introduction: Provide background information on the Crusades, restate the DBQ question, state thesis with reasons. (include academic vocabulary and underline) The results of the Crusades was probably more negative than positive. In “Doc 4”, It states that “Moreover, the assault of one Christian people on another, when one of the goals of the Fourth Crusade was reunion of Greek and Latin churches, made the split between the Greek and Latin churches permanent.” The Crusades had a lot of hatred to the religions, and by 1204 the Crusaders had lost some of their appeal because the knights agreed to attack the Byzantine Capital instead.
This contributed to the shame of the event. Many inspired Christians “often pursued violence against other non-Christians”, they were brutal and left many for dead (Document #2, “The Crusades Assignment”). Crusaders were merciless and it was just shameful that they treated other religions this way. Along with violence their emotions they felt towards their actions were shameful. After reaching their goal, Jerusalem, they were filled with “mad with joy” and after killing many Muslims and Jews to get their they were also “full of happiness and weeping with joy” (Document #3, “The Crusades Assignment”).
Also, when the Crusaders attacked places they would chant, ‘Deus Vult’, meaning ‘God Wills it.’ (Class Discussion) There were four total crusades, with the first being considered the most effective. The first crusade was launched by Pope Urban II and was the only one to successfully recapture the Holy Land of Jerusalem. The positives of the Crusades were: increased trade, a sharing of new knowledge, ideas and culture, and lastly the decline of Feudalism.
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.
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 1st Crusade began in 1096 when Pope Urban II agreed to help take back the Holy Lands of Jerusalem from Muslims or the Turks. There were many battles throughout Western Europe, Byzantine and Islam which were mostly won by Christians.
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.
In the middle ages, there was a series of wars between Muslims and Christians in Southwest Asia and it was called the Crusades, The Crusades affected the relations between Muslims and Christians in many different ways positive and negative, and It made the relations between them grew stronger. People think that the Crusades were just a series of wars that passed through time and ended with no affects not in the middle ages or today, because what they see is that the Jew are fighting over Jerusalem not the Christians, and the trade between Muslims and Christians existed before the Crusades. The trade between Muslims and Christians was strongly affected by the Crusades, when the pope called the first crusade in 1096,about 5000 Crusaders left
8.2.1- In 1097 an estimated 100,000 men enlisted in the first crusade, due to the fact that the pope promised salvation from purgatory if they joined the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to liberate the Holy Land. Peter the Hermit left, to the Holy Land, with 30,000 peasants, they terrorized Jews in Germany, and Christians in Bulgaria, when they got to Constantinople they were transported to Bosphorus and the Seljuk Turks defeated them, and the living were sold into slavery. After a five-week siege Jerusalem fell on July 15, 1099, the first crusade was a success, and because most crusaders were younger sons of nobles (Oldest gets the kingdom), they made four Crusader states based on the French Feudal model: the Country of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the Country of Tripoli, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. 8.2.2-
Many things happened during the crusades. First crusaders left there families, the women and children where left to fend for themselves. In the first and only successful crusade the crusaders killed all Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem. Although the crusaded was successful, within 46 years the land had to be fought for agin. All thought there was other crusades they still didn 't manage regain the holy land.
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.
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. The Christians looked at the crusade as their religious and personal mission and duty. After all, the Christians were the ones who were leading the crusades and they were the ones who were the biggest advocates of them.
The Crusades were a time of religious disputes between a hostile Christian group and a couargeous Muslim group that lasted over two centuries. This confrontation led by violence and the annihilation of broken cities and societies to secure the Holy Land. While the Crusades caused much destruction in both ways of life, the Crusades united people through cross-cultural trade and a central goal that gave people an identity with their religion and civilization. The culture and trade exchange connected the societies of both sides to new ideas in life. During the Crusades, Christians were given a feeling of being part of a specific society involving their religion and its goal.
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.