First Crusade And The Propagation Of Religion Essay

The First Crusade and the Propagation of Religion

The First Crusade was a military attempt by Roman Catholic Europe to regain control over the Holy Lands of Jerusalem, in which the Muslims had taken control of in 661. During this crusade, knights and peasants from many areas of Western Europe went on this pilgrimage, first stopping at Constantinople and then continuing on to Jerusalem. In the group of crusaders, the peasants greatly out numbered the military knights. Many crusaders did not make it the long journey, and the lasting crusaders were mostly the knights, as they were better trained and prepared for such combat. Once the Knights reached Jerusalem, they took control by ransacking every building and torturing and killing almost all of the 60,000 unarmed civilians living in Jerusalem. The first crusade ended in Christian victory in 1099, but this was not the last of “Gods” crusades, 6 more followed the first with the Holy Lands changing control every time costing hundreds of thousands of lives all while the bible blatantly spoke against wars and killing. This…show more content…
From the total 100,000 Christians that had left for Jerusalem, only 14,000 reached this destination and even less returned home (Tyerman, 2005). The use of God as war propaganda became more evident, but that did not stop other crusades that took place in Gods name over the next seven centuries. Although we look at the extreme brutality of the Crusades as an embarrassment to the Christian community, this use of propaganda can still be seen as a resource to justify current wars.

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James, D. (2005). Christians and the first crusade. History Review, 53,