First Crusades Causes

Introduction

The years leading up to the end of the eleventh century in Europe and the Middle East witnessed various social, political, and economic factors that all contributed to the initiation of the First Crusade in 1096. Obviously, the leading factor is the key religions and religious rivalry. Also the fact that religion played a severely important role in peoples everyday lives contributed to the First Crusade. The breakdown in central authority also contributed to a state of disorder after the very start of the eleventh century. The economic system in Europe was also in a state of transition as small kingdoms and fragmented governments competed for land and power. Also the defeat of the Byzantine army at Manzikirt by the Seljujk…show more content…
What set the First Crusade in motion was when the Emperor of Byzantine, Alexius I, asked Pope Urban II for military aid against the Muslim Turks. The Muslim Turks occupied most of Spain, Palestine, North Africa, Syria, and Jerusalem at the time and was close to Constantinople.[4] The Muslim territorial gains threatened the Christendom and sparked a serious rivalry between the two religions, especially in terms of dominance. This rivalry helped fuel the Christian retaliation and campaign against the Muslims as it threatened the Churches power.

Pope Urban II sought out to strengthen the church via reform. At the time, the church was a large part of society. The reform was aimed at papal empowerment and purification of the clergy involving a new process for the election of new popes and attacking vices such as clerical marriage and the buying and selling of ecclesiastical offices.[5] The idea of reform began with Pope Gregory VII as he strived to unite the Latin and Greek churches. However, Pope Gregory VII died leaving the office to Pope Urban II who then took over the reformation process. When Pope Urban II took office, the church was divided and weak. However, Pope Urban II managed to strengthen the church due to his diplomatic skill and flexible approach to the reformation process. In 1095, the papacy was gaining most of its prestige; and when asked for aid from the Byzantine emperor, the popes…show more content…
The political dissolution of the central governments throughout Europe resulted in feudal systems in which broken-down provinces comprised of Knights, nobles, and peasants. There was no form of central authority which caused neighboring kingdoms to war with each other. The Church saw this chaos and reacted in a sense to utilize these poor living conditions to use the mass as a religious army. The Church used religion to gain the support of the masses. Each part of life, such as love, birth, death was controlled by Christian dogma; fear was used in this belief system. The danger of sin was used to motivate people to embark on the First Crusade. It was believed that every person would be judged at death, and only the “pure” souls would be allowed into heaven. Conversely, the souls that were tainted by sin would be condemned to eternity of hell. Considering that most people at the time were illiterate, religious art was used to illustrate what would happen if they led a sinful life. This implemented fear which was used to show what would happen if people did not follow the rules of the Church. According to the Church, one way to absolve oneself from sin was to die in the name of God, resulting in a martyr’s