...How the Crusades Changed the World HIS/276CA June 23, 2014 How the Crusades Changed the World The Dark Ages were a time of cultural recession for Western Europe. The barbarian invasions during the fifth and sixth centuries had obliterated the Roman Empire in the West. The wisdom of the lost Empire was nothing more than a memory. The Crusades offered endless opportunity and provided exposure the knowledge, culture, and resources that fueled the European progression into the Renaissance; a fortuity that shifted both cultural and religious power in the modern world. By the end of the 10th century, Western Europe was destitute. The inhabitants could not farm their land properly, and soon a cycle of famine, flood, and disease began to dictate the lives of the people. The only surviving institution was the Western Church in Rome. Roman popes soon began to challenge the Byzantine emperors for ultimate control of the church. Tension grew between the two branches of Christianity, which lead to cultural, theological, and irreconcilable differences between the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe and the Greek Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire (Stalcup, 2000). This event, known as the East-West Schism in 1054, was a precursor to the Protestant Reformation (Stalcup, 2000). Meanwhile, a holy war in Spain between Christian Europeans and Muslims terrorized the outskirts of Rome during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Western Europe became very accustomed to religious...
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...Christians and Islams have had many conflicts in past years. They had conflicts like the 1300 year battle and the holy war, which is also known as the crusades. But, did the crusades help or hurt the Christian and Islam religion? Did the crusade have an impact on the religions and their view of society today? Christians originated in the city of Jerusalem, which is present day Israel. Jesus was the founder of Christianity and he was born in the small town of Bethlehem. The spread of Christianity throughout the world was thanks to a man named Paul. Paul traveled and talked about Christianity and made it spread onto every continent by the 1900s. The apostles, including Paul, were followers of God and they preached about him from place to place. At first, they had to preach secretly because they would be killed by the Jews, who at one point believed in God. The Christian religion spread to the Roman Empire, Middle East, Babylon, India, North Africa, and Europe. It eventually spread over the entire world....
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...political wars called the Crusades, took place in the late 11th century from 1095 to the late 13th century (1291). The Crusades left a tremendous impact on both the Eastern and Western Worlds in numerous ways; in certain ways, the effects were positive and in others, the effects were negative. Some of the most important results that Crusades left behind were on commerce, religion and the mindset of the people. Among the Crusaders, there were a variety of different motivations and purposes for taking part in the Crusades. Nowadays, the Crusades are usually viewed as a very important religious movement that knights of Christendom took part in to recapture the Holy Lands from Muslim rule (Doc 3). However, there were some people took part...
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...The Crusades were fought for religious devotion. European Christians fought in the Crusades to win back the Holy Land from the Muslims. Crusaders were rewarded with remission of their sins and an assurance to go to Heaven. Crusaders bore the sign of the cross to remind of who they were fighting for, Christ. The people of the Crusades knew that it was going to be tough, and they might lose their lives, but they were willing to do it for their fellow believers in Christ and Christ himself. First of all, the Crusades were fought to win back the Holy Land. The Holy Land is the city of Jerusalem and was considered the Holy Land because it was to be believed the center of the Earth. Pope Urban II influenced his listeners to join the first Crusade....
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...The Crusades had a lot of impact on our history. They tore up cities, killed innocent people, and still failed to reclaim the Holy Land. The Crusades was a series of wars over the Holy Land . The Christians believe it is the place where the last supper was held. The impact the Crusades left on our history was definitely more negative than positive. They killed innocent people like the Jews, and they made the relationship between the Jews, Muslims, and Christians worse. One way that the impact of the Crusades was more negative than positive was that the Crusades killed innocent people such as the Jews. Document 1 states that “ In Europe, crusaders sometimes turned their fury against Jews, massacring entire communities.”This is (important/interesting/relevant)...
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...Crusades Abstract Crusades are recalled as a major incident in the history. This series of the holy war started in 1095 and continued till 1272. In general, reasons and motivational factors behind crusades are classified as subjective in nature. The goal of the Christian in this war was to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim possession and retook the control of the holy land. While, Muslims at the beginning of this war were on defensive side and failed to sustain their kingdom. However, after the third crusade, Saladin recaptured Jerusalem and included this state in his Kingdom of Egypt. This paper briefly describes the reasons and impacts of crusades which affected Europe in terms of politics, economy and social system and benefits. Table of Contents John Q. Student Professor Doe English 344 8 May 2000 Crusades Introduction The human history has seen numerous wars which have been fought to achieve the strategic goals of the states. Most of the wars reflect the intention of territorial expansion, acquiring additional resources of occupied land, settling down the political instability and to create balance or dominancy in terms of power in the region. However, history also witnesses to the fact that there are many wars that were fought on the name of religion. Crusades, among them, are generally referred as holy war or series of religious military actions to conquer the...
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...3/2/2012 5th period Between 1000 C.E. and 1750 C.E., Islam had a great impact on Europe, which affected it politically, economically and culturally. Islam brought and took political power to/from the Church and king through the crusades, affected the economy through new innovations, and finally affected Europe’s society and culture through the Renaissance. Islam absolutely affected Europe in both positive and negative ways, but without a doubt changed the whole order of things for the continent. The Crusades started in 1095, once pope Urban II demanded all the nations in Europe to unite for a single cause. Before this point, Europe had never really been completely united due to civil wars and other disuniting conflicts. The Crusades were directed towards more radical Muslims, focusing heavily on the city of Jerusalem. In addition to unifying Europe, the first few Crusades brought extreme power to the pope and consequently the church. However, the later Crusades were less successful which took away power and popularity from the pope. Before the Crusades against Islam, kings had little power; the land was divided among rich aristocrats who had many small armies. However, many of these aristocrats died on battle without leaving an heir, which would entitle their land to the king. These massive gains of land greatly increased the kings’ power. Islam had a huge impact on Europe’s economy. Before the Crusades, Europe’s technology was very primitive and below its time. At the time...
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...Impact of Crusades in European History The time referred to as the High Middle Ages in Europe in the 11th century was in stark contrast to the Europe of the Renaissance. The continent was divided into kingdoms of weaker monarchs fragmented into small fiefdoms. The political landscape was dominated by the powerful aristocracy and even more powerful men of the religion. Life conditions were dismal for most of the population, trade was nearly nonexistent. In terms of arts and sciences, European civilization was dwarfed by those of the Middle East and Asia. Yet, in a couple centuries Europe would become one of the most powerful, sophisticated civilizations in the world. This change can be attributed in no small part to its interaction with the Orient though Crusades that spanned from the end of the 11th century to the end of the 13th century. The 35,000 men that joined the first Crusade embarked on a journey to a world that was very different than Europe. After capturing Jerusalem and settling down in various places in the Middle East, they saw that the Muslims lived luxurious lives. Their civilization was hundreds of years ahead of their own in terms of culture, technology and sciences. The Arabs had spent centuries in major cities copying the texts of classical Greek philosophers and making additions on the existing body of knowledge. The works of philosopher scientists such as Ibn Sina and Biruni were taught in European centers of learning emerging at the time of the first...
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...The Crusades were a series of wars taking place in Asia Minor and the Levant between 1095 and 1291, in which Western European nations engaged using the propaganda of religious expeditionary wars. The first crusade was called by Pope Urban II of the Roman Catholic Church, with the stated goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem. The background to the Crusades was the centuries of Arab–Byzantine Wars and the Seljuq-Byzantine Wars and the recent decisive defeat of the Byzantine army by Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in 1071. The Norman conqueror Robert Guiscard's conquest of Byzantine territories added to the problems of the Byzantine Empire. In an attempt to curtail both dangers, its Emperor Alexios I sought to align Christian nations against a common enemy, requested western aid, and Pope Urban II in turn enlisted western leaders in the cause of taking back the Holy Land.[1] The crusaders comprised military units of Roman Catholics from all over western Europe, and were not under unified command. The main series of Crusades, primarily against Muslims in the Levant, occurred between 1095 and 1291. Historians have given many of the earlier crusades numbers. After some early successes, the later crusades failed and the crusaders were defeated and forced to return home. Several hundred thousand soldiers became Crusaders by taking vows;[2] the Pope granted them plenary indulgence. Their emblem was the cross — the term "crusade" is derived from the French...
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...Final Paper The Crusades were military campaigns controlled by the Catholic Church throughout the Middle Ages. In 1095 the Byzantine Emperor Alexios the first, from the city of Constantinople, sent one of his ambassadors to Pope Urban the second located within Italy. His ambassador pleaded for military help against the growing Turkish Empire and viewed them as a threat. The Pope answered by sending Catholic soldiers to fight in the First Crusade. The initial objective was to gain pilgrims access to the holy sites in the Holy Land that at the time was under Muslim occupation. His larger goal was to reunite the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity after they had split in 1054. The pope remained as head of the united Church, and carried...
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...The Crusades are traditionally defined as the series of western expeditions against the Muslim lands of Palestine and the Levant which begun with Pope Urban’s call to arms at Clermont in 1095 AD, and all but ended with the Muslim liberation of Acre in 1291. The initial western offensive was sudden and effective. By 1099, Jerusalem was in Christian hands, and remained so until 1187, when it was liberated by Slah al-Din. From then on, European power in the region was very limited, although Frederick II of Sicily briefly conquered Jerusalem again in 1228. The fall of Acre in 1291 marked the end of the European presence in the region. All in all, it was the western Christian that states failed to counter the ultimate rise of Muslim power as-well-as “liberating” any holy lands. It was a war that a man fought another man for the misguided main beliefs of another. Over-all, the Muslim nations that were invaded by those Christian states wanted no part of the hostile take-over of their lands or a forced conversion to their non-Islamic religion. Holy Sepulchre, a city in Palestine was the center of attraction; where the religious practices of Christians were not allowed to enter. The city was under the care of the Caliphs from Bagdad and the Fatimid’s of Egypt. At one point the Caliph presented the keys of this holy place to Charlemagne to lock out the millions of Christians from gaining access. People from Turkey sooner joined the fight to control the holy place as the Arabian community...
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...The Crusades, while not usually successful, did drastically change societies and regimes throughout the Mediterranean. Between 1096 and 1291 Latin Europe undertook eight large scale military campaigns in attempt to win back the Holy Land, which had been under Muslim control since 639. These Crusades are unique in European history because they are the only wars to be formally sanctioned and blessed by the Pope. By 1096, many Europeans felt war against Islam was a just cause due to repeated popular attacks and state-run persecutions of Christians and Jews, lead by Islamic...
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...Assess the reasons for the failure of the Second Crusade (1147-1149) The Second Crusade featured two of the most important European rulers of the time, at the head of an army that numbered in the region of 70,000, and supported by the Pope and the great orator St. Bernard of Clairvaux, with the relatively modest aim of taking back Edessa. The reasons for the failure of the Second Crusade are manifold. The annihilation of the Christian population at Edessa undermined its suitability as a target, leading to the crusade being subordinated to the rival interests of the crusader states. Furthermore, the Byzantines withheld assistance, while the crusaders faced a stronger and more united Muslim force. However, while all these factors played a part in the failure of the crusade, it was ultimately the poor leadership demonstrated by Louis and Conrad that led to a succession of mistakes, which emphasised the importance of these other factors, to bring about the complete failure of the crusade. Poor leadership was the key reason for the failure of the Second Crusade. Both Conrad III and Louis VII demonstrated an inability to manage their troops and weak leadership. Conrad was perhaps more to blame, abandoning the plan to wait for Louis at Constantinople, declaring he would not rest until Edessa was taken. This led him to enter Asia Minor without the support of Louis making the whole contingent more vulnerable to Muslim attack. This exacerbated a succession of further errors. At Nicaea...
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...The crusade notes By: Travis Finney Date: 4-8-13 Decline of Byzantium * Muslim saliqus won an important victory at manzikert in 1071. Byzantium factions then turned on each other in civil war allowing the saliqus almost free rein in Anatolia. * The Byzantium emperor asked Pope Urban 11 to help him against the Muslim’s. Pope Urban 11 * Urban’s speech would help launch the first of several crusades. Reasons for the crusades * The Pope hoped to unite the entire eastern Mediterranean and the divided Christian faith under the banner of the Latin Church. * Italy with large navies supported the crusades for commercial gains and trading routes. * The Byzantine Empire was in severe decline and no longer could act as a butler between the Muslim east and the Catholic west. * Christian pilgrims visiting the holy sites in Jerusalem began experiencing increased harassment and danger. The First Crusade * The word “Crusade” comes from the Spanish Crusade which means “marked with the cross” * The first Crusaders met the Muslim forces and won victories at Nicaea on June 19, 1097 and Anita on June 3, 1098. * By June 7, 1099 after a three year campaign 12,000 of the original 30,000 crusaders reached Jerusalem. * On July 15, the crusaders went over the city walls and unleashed unbridled carnage. Moslem counter attack * Most of all the crusaders returned to Europe after freeing Jerusalem creating a manpower shortage. * Moslem...
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...forces that had a major impact were the crusades. The Crusades were a bunch of religious wars that were called on by the Pope and the Catholic Church in order to defend Christianity against the Muslims and get closer to the holy cities and other places in ancient Palestine. So what exactly does “crusade” mean? The word comes from an old French word “crois”, which means cross (if you haven’t guessed it). The crusaders (men who take vows to fight for Christianity) were not usually under a single banner, they all attached a cross to their clothes, but joining a crusade was usually voluntarily (depending where you were from). The Lords would get a notice that the Pope has called a crusade, and if they didn’t have any local problems of their own, they would go and fight the Byzantines. But the King of a country was still the same old mean guy, and if a lord or a noble died while fighting in the crusades, his land was possessed by the king, and other nobles were so righteous that they sold off their lands in order to buy weapons and armor to fight in the crusades. Not everything was so grim, the crusaders were facing a superior force and they had to adapt, they learned for example how to use a compass or how to build better ships. And while warring with other country’s they picked up some loot along the way, like silk, spices, sugar and brought the spoils back home, which enticed the Europeans to trade to gain more of these luxury good. In total there were 9 crusades, with varying degrees...
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