THE CRUSADES By: Patrick Downpoop Professor Schlomann 17 October 2011 INTRODUCTION When an individual thinks of Christianity it is more than likely that one of the thoughts that cross their mind is the Crusades which occurred over in Europe. While most people will think of the Crusades as being simple fights between knights and Muslims there was a much deeper rooted issues at hand. The first was the issue of religious rule and the second is that of regional rule. Both the Christians and the Muslims wanted to have ultimate power over both which led to the Crusades. In this paper I will attempt to discover why the Crusades began, what where the motives, and have the Crusades furthered the cause of Christ.
It lead to the Latin west taking precious relics home and advocating their victory which they believed God had proclaimed to them, however Pope Innocent III debarred their actions and accused them of losing their purity and faith. The Crusades were informed by chivalric and religious ideals about the sanctity of certain types of violence throughout all crusades however the later crusades were a contradiction with horrible atrocities, attacks with the only purpose of wealth and fighting and attacking Christians. Bibliography Primary Sources De Villehardouin, Geoffrey, Memoirs or Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of Constantinople, translation by Frank T. Marzials, London, 1908 Jonathan Riley- Smith, Crusades: Idea and Reality, 1095 – 1274, London, 1981 Robert the Monk, Historia Hierosolymitana, Dana C. Munro, "Urban
Western Civilization leads in categories of politics, economics, science and technology and in each category the West gained efficiency and effectiveness. It is seen by many people that Columbus used his power to conquer the people of the new world and commit genocide and slavery but at the same time Columbus brought knowledge to these people and enabled them to become as powerful as Western Civilization. Over time, Western Civilization has faced adversity but like Columbus, they have done whatever was necessary to keep expanding Western influence. The article also clarifies the debate over Columbus because it shows that Columbus cannot be looked at as good or bad; Columbus has to be looked at as an admiral, who took necessary action in the new world to keep Western Civilization on top. If Columbus had not taken the actions that he did, the people of the new world may have overthrown him and the western influence and that could have changed the world as we know it forever.
The First Crusade began in 1095 after the speech of Pope Urban at the Council of Clermont. There were many reasons as to why people joined the First Crusade, including religious, economic and social factors. I believe that the most important reason is the religious factor. This is because since religion was so important and present at this time, people were constantly reminded of the fact that it was their right as Christians to kill the infidel and claim their ‘rightful’ holy place in Jerusalem. Pope Urban, in 1095, gave a speech which called people to crusade.
There were also other external factors, but this was the one with the greatest impact since it was like the final blow. The internal conflicts that partially caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire were mostly composed of disagreements of Christianity, tax increases, power trips between leaders, etc. This fall led to a whole new age sometimes referred to as the “Dark Ages”. This was because all the people that were ruled by the Empire depended on protection, food, etc. so when the empire collapsed, they were left with nothing and had to strive very desperately to obtain back what they had lost.
Repercussions from the war would cause religious tensions to flair, old government to be overthrown and new ones to be established. All of the events that happened after World War I would go on to shape what the Middle East is today. How did WWI affect the Middle East? The Middle East was on its way towards change but World War Two was the event that really propelled it to the modern era. During the first world war the majority of the Middle East was under the control of the Ottoman
The Magyar were part of the Second Age of Invasion that the Muslims initiated. They traveled from Western Asia and resembled the Turks in many ways.1Their art post a serious threat to the stability of numerous European Kingdoms, including the Byzantine Empire. For instance, “The Magyars fought as they had on the Eurasian Steppes, as fast-moving and light equipped horse archers”.2 Moreover, their hit and run tactics made it extremely difficult to defeat. In addition, since they were driven by their desire to salvage and pillage the regions they often did not accept open battle instead rely on their surprise attract and immediate retreat. The Magyars started their invasions of Europe in the 9th century AD.
The Moors who were a group of Moslems conquered the Iberian Peninsula in 711. Over the next 750 years there would be numerous battles between the Christian and Muslims to gain control; it came to end in 1492 when the last of the Moorish kingdoms were driven from the Iberian Peninsula. This period is known as the Reconquista. The Muslims during the 13th century made a lot of strides in geography, mathematics astronomy and medicine. With the influx of Muslims the European nations became immersed in their philosophies; many people became frightened by the Muslim influence consequently there was a demand to increase the centralization of the Christian Kingdom which helped to unite Europe.
The negative and deadly effects of the discovery of the Americas were undoubtedly costly to civilizations and worlds, as I will state in the following paragraphs. “… Faith in Christ had spread over the entire earth through… the Apostles:” (Guicciardini Document 1). This brought wide spread confusion and negative outlook on the wave of voyagers to civilization. Europeans and Italians, who were leaving their homeland going to the new land, said they would spread Christianity to the worlds. This statement contradicted that the Apostles were supposed to spread the Christian faith across the world not by voyagers and shouldn’t be done by them.
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.