The Turks had already began to capture parts of his empire. Always getting closer the Turks were just 100 miles from the capital of Constantinople. So this lead to Alexius asking for help from pope Gregory to fight them. Unfortunately pope Gregory was unable to help, but the following pope, pope urban II, was very keen to help. Launched by pope urban, with the primary goal of responding to an appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Komnenos, the first crusade was a military expedition by western Christianity to regain the holy lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem.
The Impact of the Crusades on History The Crusades, also know as the “Holy Wars”, were fought in the name of Christ and Christianity. Muslims controlled Jerusalem after the fall of the Roman Empire and they allowed religious freedoms to the Christians and Jews that also resided here. In the early 11th century, however, the Seljuk Turks (also Muslim) took rule of Jerusalem and the surrounding Palestine region. The Turks endorsed Islam and ended religious freedoms for both Jews and Christians. The Turks attempted to expand their reign and began to invade the Byzantine Empire.
In addition they wanted to expand their land. So they decided to fight them to get Jerusalem with the aim of recovering control of the Holy Land from the Turkish Muslims who had seized it. All over Europe great nobles, clergy and peasants began preparing for the trip, believing that if they fought the Muslims Turks they would go to heaven. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between 1095 and 1291. First Crusade 1095–1099: The Emperor, Alexius I, was worried.
| Founder | Jesus Christ (c. 4 B.C. - 30 A.D.) | Mohammed (570 - 632 A.D.) 1 | Abraham (First Patriarch, born c. 1800 B.C.) | Divisions | Three main groups: Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic. | Two main groups: Sunni and Shia (The division occured due to a dispute as to the legitimate successor of the prophet Mohammed). There is also a mystical/ascetic movement in Islam known as Sufi.
A primary cause of the Crusades was religious differences between the Muslims and the Christians. Christians made pilgrimages to Jerusalem, and when they saw that their Holy Land was owned by Muslims, they felt that they had a religious obligation to take back this land. Muslims felt that the land belonged to them, and that what the Christians were trying to do was unmerited. This is an example of the external pressures both cultures experienced in relation to the ownership of their Holy Land. Christians were promised that if they joined the war, they would be forgiven of sins and guaranteed a place in heaven, which was irresistible to many people.
Pope Urban II’s call for a crusade:Four Accounts -This piece of work has four different accounts of one of the first sermons that Pope Urban gave about the crusade. The sermon was a response to Constantinople plea for help against the Turks. The sermon had called for Christians all around Europe to help save their Christian brothers and sisters who are being greatly mistreated and to take back the Holy land from the Muslims who were currently occupying it. These four accounts were written by churchmen and all of the accounts were written after the conclusion of the first crusade. The First Crusade and the idea of crusading by Jonathan Riley-Smith- I find this book so far to be a good read and chapter 1:Pope Urbans Message to very useful in helping me write my paper.
The crusades affected western culture because of their biblical practices that threatened it. By 1905, Urban II’s call for a crusade was only part of a larer shifting in theological interpretations and justification of warfare: the Reconquista in Spain, for instance, had been under way for over two centuries and was rooted in a re-fashioned understanding of just war theory. The explicit pilgrimage and warfare gave the First Crusade a unique potency that triggered widespread enthusiasm across feudal social boudaries. Pilgrimage was a common practice during Middle Ages and, given the perils of travel, pilgrims often armed themselves for defense. The ideology of the crusade, however, was one rooted in the practice redemptive pilgrimage as well as conquest.
The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established as "holy experiments" by the puritans. This group of English Protestants, whose only wish was to "purify" the Church of England, began to receive savage punishment from England for their religious beliefs. In turn, driven by religion, thousands of the religious zealots immigrated to New England to worship God in the way that they saw fit. However, although the Puritans did leave England, running from there own religious persecution, once they had established themselves they self-righteously employed the
Islam is one of the newest religions. Islam was founded around the year 622 (Nosotro). Muslims (people who follow Islam) follow a book of laws called the Koran (or Quran), while the book the Jews follow is the Torah. The laws are very strict, and there are consequences for those who do not follow them. There are five major obligations for Muslims: testimony of faith, prayer, giving zakat, fasting in the month of Ramadan, and the pilgrimage to the Mecca.
Occurring predominantly in Europe and the Middle East, the Crusades began in 1095 and officially ended in 1291 (History.com staff, 2010). This being said, the causes can be traced back to 1081 when Alexius Comnenus gained the Byzantine throne, becoming Emperor Alexius I, after years of chaos and invasions by the Seljuk Turks (History.com staff, 2010). In due time Emperor Alexius would begin to set his sights on reclaiming the Holy Land from the Muslims. Seeing that this task would require more than the Byzantine’s men, he reached out to Pope Urban II of the Roman Catholic Church asking him for troops (History.com staff, 2010). The Pope made his decision public at the 1095 Council of Clermont in Southern France where he raised the proposal for all able Western Christians to raise arms to aid the Byzantines.