... The Crusades The crusades were military expeditions launched against the Muslims by the Christians in an attempt to regain the holy land. They took place between 1095 AD and 1291 AD. It was one of the most violent periods in the history of mankind. The crusades did not accomplish much during their time. The crusades were unnecessary because many people were raped and killed, there was only one successful crusade, and they ultimately weakened the empire. The crusades caused great pain to families, Jewish communities and more. For instance, “the crusades ended their campaign in 1099 by slaughtering some 30,000 Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem.” They are considered to be the most violent, because innocent people were killed. Many different types of weapons were used to accomplish these tragic events. The blood from the children that were killed was mixed with the leavened bread of Passover. There were seven different crusades. Even though, the first crusade was successful in the holy war, many Muslims were slaughtered. The second crusade was launched in the 12th century. They lost many battles and were ambushed. The third crusade destroyed a chain of cities along the Mediterranean. The fourth crusades had financial difficulties, so they took Constantinople and plundered it to get money. The fifth, sixth, and seventh crusades were the same as the others- they were launched and did not accomplish much. Overall, there are many reasons why the crusades were not...
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...Assess the reasons why there was a crusade in 1095 The first crusade began in 1095 following the Council of Clermont, although the official crusade forces didn’t leave until 1097. It was at the Council of Clermont that Pope Urban II first talked about the idea of a crusade. He explained that the Byzantine emperor, Alexius, had appealed for help as his land was constantly under attack from Muslim forces. Many people answered the appeal and took part in the crusade, however many embarked for different reasons. Some devout Christians, such as Peter the Hermit, will have taken part due to religious zeal and a desire to help the Christians in the East. Others, such as Baldwin of Boulogne or Bohemond of Taranto may have also desired the chance to gain land and material rewards in the East. Whatever their reasons, over 100,000 people took part in the crusade, final taking Jerusalem in 1099. The factor that sparked the whole idea of a crusade was Emperor Alexius’ appeal to Pope Urban II in 1095. Alexius saw an opportunity to take back some land lost to the Seljuk Turks as the Norman leader, Robert Guiscard, had recently died and the Muslim forces were focusing on internal conflicts. Although Emperor Alexius needed military assistance, his appeal to Pope Urban II focussed more on the suffering of the Christians in the East at the hands of the Muslims as opposed to fighting. He put emphasis on the fact that Christians were being slaughtered and that Muslims and Seljuk Turks had...
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...The Crusades were a bloody religious war, they had a goal to have conquest of The Holy Land, but they had failed that goal. They also had left a bad remembrance of hatred behind them. In the Middle East, Christians and Muslims committed an awful violation in the name of religion. In Europe, Crusaders sometimes turned their anger on the Jews, kill the entire communities. The Crusades were fought between 30,000 people from Europe and the Seljuk Turks, who had taken total control of The Holy Land from the Arabs. The main Crusades took over a period of 200 years, they began in 1905 and continued till 1272. The Crusades are more negative, for example relations between Muslims and their Christian and Jewish subjects worsened. Commerce with the...
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...reason for the success of the First Crusade?’ In 1099 the First Crusade had succeeded their objective and captured the Holy City of Jerusalem. The use of military leadership provided by key figures including Bohemond of Taranto, Raymond of Toulouse and Adhemar of Le Puy were considered a main reason for the crusaders success. Due to the failure of the First Wave it was considered by the Muslims that the crusaders will no longer be a threat to them. Strong Military leadership was a large part for as to why the First Crusade was such a success. Without strong leadership from Bohemond and Adhemar leading the troops, the Western forces would have most likely fallen apart and turned against one another and their Eastern allies. This was key during the Battle of Dorylaeum where the crusaders were confronted with a barbaric and alien type of warfare, this is where Bohemond showed his true light as a good leader as he was able to keep his forces disciplined and in check, longs enough for Godfrey of Bouillon and the other princes to come and help them. In the crusade Adhemar was always recognized as the spiritual leader of the crusade. He fought a crucial role in the Battle of Dorylaeum and was responsible for sustaining the morale during the Siege of Antioch by doing several religious rites include fasting and special observances of holy days. However it could be considered that good military tactics were a key reason for why the First Crusade was a success, as the core of the...
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...‘To what extent was superior military leadership the main reason for the success of the First Crusade?’ The First Crusade was won once Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre had been captured and the crusading vow had hence been fulfilled. Superior military leadership was a huge factor and did play a very large, considerable role in the victory of the First Crusade. However, there are many other contributing factors which influenced the triumph, and to state that superior military leadership was the sole reason is quite the assumption, and a broader view of the other elements should be regarded. One of the factors is the superior military leadership as stated by the question. Following the failure of the First Wave, led by Peter the Hermit and band of illiterate, incompetent peasants, the Second Wave was structured, organised and lead by Noblemen. They provided key figures such as Bohemond, Prince of Taranto and Adhemar, Bishop of Le Puy, and this offered the Crusaders guidance, tactics and strategy to their battles. Their strategies of aggressive, merciless fighting led them to successful sieges at Nicaea, Antioch and Jerusalem. Arguably, without the leadership which the First Crusade received they wouldn’t have been victorious due to guidance and battle strategies which they offered. It is evident, how crucial the leaders were to the cause, as upon Adhemar, Bishop of Le Puy’s death, many Crusaders mourned their loss over a great spell. The Crusaders knew how influential...
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...The Crusades In 1095 an assembly of churchmen called by Pope Urban II met at Clermont, France. Messengers from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus had urged the pope to send help against the armies of Muslim Turks. On November 27 the pope addressed the assembly and asked the warriors of Europe to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims. The response of the assembly was overwhelmingly favorable. Thus was launched the first and most successful of at least eight crusades against the Muslim caliphates of the Near East. "God wills it!" That was the battle cry of the thousands of Christians who joined crusades to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. From 1096 to 1270 there were eight major crusades and two children's crusades, both in the year 1212. Only the First and Third Crusades were successful. In the long history of the Crusades, thousands of knights, soldiers, merchants, and peasants lost their lives on the march or in battle. 1095: Beginning of the Crusades In 1095 an assembly of churchmen called by Pope Urban II met at Clermont, France. Messengers from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus had urged the pope to send help against the armies of Muslim Turks. On November 27 the pope addressed the assembly and asked the warriors of Europe to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims. The response of the assembly was overwhelmingly favorable. Thus was launched the first and most successful of at least eight crusades against the Muslim caliphates of the Near East. The...
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...‘The disunity of the Muslims was the main reason for the success of the first crusade’ Explain why you agree or disagree with this view Muslim disunity did contribute to the First Crusade success as it allowed the Christian side to fight against the odd numbers and win battles as the Muslims were in disarray. The disunity of the Muslims led to the victory at Dorylaeum in June 1097. Muslim disunity also led to the crusaders gaining Jerusalem and that the capture of Jerusalem was a success because of the conflict between Kilij Arslan and Danishmend in the city of Isfahan. By 1099 Christendom was in control of Jerusalem the ultimate reason for the First Crusade. The Muslim disunity was in leadership and in religion. The Muslim army did not trust the leadership and this made it easier for the crusaders to get them to betray their own people as they did not trust or like them. The Arab empire was too large for the leaders to rule effectively over it and was quickly dissolved; the first dynasty was founded in North Africa 777AD, this led to war lords diverting manpower that could have threatened the Christians invasion against themselves. This allowed the Crusaders to win and claim many areas like; Antioch October 1097 – June 1098. Also, Ridwan of Aleppo brought his army to aid the city when surrounded by the crusaders, only for it to be ambushed by them in February 1098, as the army of his brother Kerbogha of Mosul approached. There was disunity apparent within the siblings themselves...
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...The Crusades was a series of “holy wars” fought between European christians and Middle Eastern muslims from 1095 to 1291. It consisted of three primary expeditions including the People's crusade, the German crusade and finally the Prince’s crusade. Though the main goal of all three Crusades was to reclaim regions near Jerusalem from the Infidel. Peasants, nobles, knights and various others were all motivated by varying causes. Whether it be for religious purposes, personal gain (such as money), or furthering their positions in power, it pushed thousands of people to participate in the Crusades. They succeeded in spreading their influence but failed to claim the holy lands back, leaving Islam as the dominate religion in the East. The crusades...
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...The purpose of the crusades was to reclaim control of the holy land, the crusades started in 1096 when Pope Urbane II had enough, the Holy Land became a fact of conflict to the European Christians. Since the 6th century, Christians constantly made pilgrimages to the birthplace of their religion, but the Seljuk Turks took over of Jerusalem, Christians were barred from the Holy City. Some of the crusades were successful and some were not, this was because some of the places they planned to invade had more people join the war than they expected and people became more powerful than them. At the end of the crusades in 1291, they agreed to the Muslims controlling the land, however Christians could visit the...
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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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...The Fundamental causes of the Crusades Derek A. Shuman The ancient World had the territorial Peleponesian war between Athens and Sparta. After that, the Persian swept in and conquered much of Greece, along with the rest of the Mediterranean area. Alexander retook possession of Greece, (along with much of the Mediterranean). Then came the Romans, who also conquered Greece, (along with much of the Mediterranean). But after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Eastern Mediterranean fell into the hands of the Muslims. So, since 638 AD, Jerusalem had been governed by Muslims. The Muslim Caliphs were, at heart, capitalists, and they tolerated Christian pilgrims because the tourist money helped the economy. But then, in the 1070s, Turks (who were recent Muslim converts) conquered these Holy Lands and mistreated the Jews and Christians, not realizing how useful their good will (and money) could be. The Byzantine Empire was also threatened by the Turks. Emperor Alexius asked the pope for assistance. Pope Urban II, a skillful orator, seeing an outlet for the violent energy of Christian knights, made an urgent speech calling for them to take back Jerusalem. Thousands responded, resulting in the First Crusade. Dates and Leaders of the Crusades: Urban II made his speech calling for Crusade at the Council of Clermont in November, 1095. He combined the idea of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with waging a war against the infidels. When he also promised complete absolution past present and future...
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...The Crusades The Crusades was a war against the Moslems(Muslims) fought by the Christians. It started in November 1095 when the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius Commenus had sent a desperate appeal to defend Christianity against the Moslem enemy because the SeIjuk Turks, the dominant Moslem power, had conquered the Holy Land from the Christians and closed of the places made sacred by the life of Christ. Pope Blessed Urban II concluded a speech with words, “Men of God, men chosen and blessed among all, combine your forces! Take the road to the Holy Sepulcher assured of the imperishable glory that awaits you in God's kingdom. Let each one deny himself and take the Cross!” The assembly then rose with him and thus became the Crusaders. They adopted a red cross as there emblem and within ours no more red material remained in town because the knights had used it all to make the crosses that would be sewn onto their sleeves. The name Crusaders was given to them because of their emblem(crux the Latin word for cross). The Crusades were a just war which has been a controversial debate over time, but to prove it, in history the Christian nations in Europe were definitely not the aggressors. The Moslems had been the aggressors against the Christians since the seventh century. Their attacks on the Christians were still going on in the eleventh century. In 1071 the Turks had attacked and virtually annihilated the Byzantine army at Manzikert. It was this defeat that led the Byzantine Emperor...
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...Why The US Became An Imperialist Power It can certainly be argued that the turn to imperialism by the United States in the late nineteenth century was of a piece with expansionist policy that dated back to the founding of the nation. Many of the justifications were similar, including a civilizing mission, expanding economic opportunities, competition with foreign powers, and others. Additionally, the anxieties that resulted from the closing of the frontier (most famously expressed in Frederick Jackson Turner's 1893 essay The Significance of the Frontier in American History) are often cited as driving forces for continued expansion as a way of maintaining American vitality in a modern world. Yet imperialism marked a major departure from previous US policy. For more than a century, political leaders had emphasized American isolation from the problems of the world. By mid-century, however, the desire for new markets for United States manufactured goods had resulted in increasing involvement in foreign affairs. The United States became an imperialist power for reasons of wealth, land, and power in the late eighteenth century. Though ideologically convincing, the imperialist policies that the US followed proved to be unsuccessful in a number of instances. From 1890 to about 1911, many Americans held the strongest of reservation either in favor or against United States imperialism. Thus, the debate over imperialism is split into two categories: Imperialists and anti-imperialists...
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...RESEARCH ESSAY TOPICS 1. Select a crusade and discuss the extent to which it accomplished its objectives. Why did it succeed or fail? Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A Short History; Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives; Christopher Tyerman, God’s War: A New History of the Crusades 2. How did anti-Semitism manifest itself in medieval Europe? Kenneth R. Stow, Alienated Minority: The Jews of Medieval Latin Europe; Mark R. Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages; Solomon Grayzel, The Church and the Jews in the Thirteenth Century 3. What was the position of prostitutes in medieval society? Ruth Mazo Karras, Common Women; Leah Otis, Prostitution in Medieval Society; Margaret Wade Labarge, A Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life 4. Why did the French choose to follow Joan of Arc during the the Hundred Years War? Kelly DeVries, Joan of Arc: A Military Leader; Bonnie Wheeler, ed., Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc; Margaret Wade Labarge, A Small Sound of the Trumpet: Women in Medieval Life 5. Discuss the significance of siege warfare during the crusades. You may narrow this question down to a single crusade if you wish. Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Siege; Randall Rogers, Latin Siege Warfare in the Twelfth Century; John France, Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade 6. Why did the persecution of heretics increase...
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