In 1187, 88 years after the fall of the Jerusalem to the Crusaders, the Franks were defeated in a disastrous battle at Hattin. This battle pitted bitter rivals in Saladin and his Muslim army and the Frankish army under King Guy of Jerusalem. After several days of skirmishes and a day of intense fighting Saladin would emerge victorious. Almost all of Guy’s army of around 20,000 Christians would be killed or captured including Guy himself, though he would be released later. What caused this terrible defeat? Some historians believe that Count Raymond of Tripoli, a prominent Christian leader, was at fault for the Frankish defeat at Hattin, but King Guy of Jerusalem’s numerous mistakes were the real cause of the Frankish loss.
This defeat was not inevitable, but a major conflict between the two powers in the region, Saladin and Guy, certainly was. For years, Saladin had been provoked by the Christian leader Reynald of Chatillon. In 1181-2, Reynald led a raid into the Hijaz?, winning the support of local tribes and wreaking havoc. While the raid itself didn’t do all that much damage, it still posed a huge problem for Saladin. The ease in which Reynald was able to recruit the local tribes was bad news for Saladin were any serious invasion to come through. An even worse provocation followed the next year. Reynald led a naval expedition into the Red Sea, then landing and attempting to march on Mecca. This expedition was stopped a single day’s march from the city. This shocked the Muslim world, and shook their faith in Saladin and his ability to protect them from the infidels in the Latin Kingdom. The Muslim world demanded a response from Saladin, but when he invaded later that year he was unable to provoke the Christians under King Guy i...
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...lized now just how desperate their situation was, and made several charges to try and break out. Only one succeeded, a charge led by Balian of Ibelin enabled a few Christians to escape the deadly ring. The remaining Christians had no hope to win the battle, they were greatly outnumbered and dangerously dehydrated. They knew that the only escape was to kill Saladin himself. They launched two last ditch charges towards Saladin. This nearly worked, each time the Christians were close to reaching Saladin himself before they were finally turned back.
After the failure of those charges, the Christians gave up. Many of them just laid on the ground, collapsed with exhaustion. The Muslims rounded up the Christians, killing the knights and Raynald, and selling into slavery many more. He let King Guy go free however, saying “It is not the wont of kings to kill kings”.
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Eastby, Allen G. "Battle of Brandywine: Setback for the Continental Army." Military History 12 1998: 58-64. ProQuest. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
Foss explains, “What Urban needed was an enterprise, clearly virtuous in serving the ends of Christiandome… in these moments of reflection, the popes mind turned towards Jerusalem.” Urban II reflects back on the first taking of the Holy City after the defeat of the Byzantine Empire in 1071, and begins to question what his people know about the Turkish race and really the ideology of Islamic thought. Foss goes on to examine the ignorance of westerners and needed to be “reminded [by the pope] of the infamous heathens, their cruelty and hatred of Christians,” hoping this would justify the first Holy Crusade. However, Foss identifies the creativity of the Pope’s language to persuade the knights and army of the people to embark on the Holy Crusade based on the Muslims cruel actions turned onto their fellow Christians. Claiming the Muslims “Killed captives by torture…poor captives were whipped…and others were bound to the post and used as a target for arrows.” Foss examines the Popes words as an effective effort of persuasion in creating an army of crusaders to help clean “…Holy places, which are now treated with ignominy and polluted with Filthiness” and any sacrifice in Jerusalem is a “promise of a spiritual reward… and death for
Saladin’s forces took Jerusalem from Christian control which resulted in a call for another crusade. Three kings, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, King Phillip II of France, and King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) led this crusade but accomplished little.
In the summer of 1944, General George S. Patton and his 3rd Army successfully broke through heavy German Forces resistance from the Normandy invasion. German forces were in total disarray by the end of August 1944. Patton pleaded with his boss, General Omar Bradley, that if 3rd U.S. Army could be allocated as little as 400,000 gallons of fuel, he could be inside Germany in two days. Time was crucial before the inevitable reaction by the Germans to shore up their defense, preventing Patton from advancing. General Bradley refused Patton's request for more fuel; Unfortunately, General Patton advanced to Germany. Morale ran high throughout Patton’s Army, and there was no sign of heavy resistance before the German border. Consequently, by early September, the 3rd U.S Army had ground to a virtual halt along the flooded Moselle River. In places, Patton's tanks and vehicles ran out of fuel on the battlefield and their swift momentum outran their supply lines (Fugate, 1999). Lack of logistics allowed the German forces to take advantage of Patton’s Army and initiate one of the largest tank battles of World War II, the Battle of Arracourt.
During the War Between the States there were two large-scale, decisive battles fought near the town of Manassas, Virginia. This will be a guided look at the second of those two occurring at the end of August in 1862. There were several great leaders from both sides of the war involved in the 2nd of Manassas, however I am going to focus on the attitudes, maneuvers, and decisions of the four primary generals; General Robert E. Lee, Major General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Major General John Pope, and Major General George B. McClellan, as it was these men who, ultimately, shaped the actions and outcome of the battle. Following the Seven Days Battle, Maj. Gen. McClellan’s armies were camped on the banks of the James River, 20 miles from Richmond1 (Debelius 1998) and Gen Lee had just taken control of the Army of Northern Virginia on June 12 (Hennessy 2005). Maj. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson was a subordinate commander in the Army of Northern Virginia and Maj. Gen. Pope was inbound to “assist” Maj. Gen. McClellan in securing the area of Northern Virginia for the Union high command. This study will focus on the mind-sets, maneuvers, and decisions these men made throughout the course of the battle that led to the defeat of the Union forces under Maj. Gen. Pope’s leadership.
Warriors of God by James Reston Jr. is a non-fictional view of the third crusade. This particular crusade spanned from 1187-1192, containing many gruesome battles and a lot of intense moments between Islam and Christianity. Reston supplies the reader with a little background to the third Crusade when he talks about the first Crusades happening since 1095. Reston gives a fairly impartial view of this holy war. He discusses the battles, politics, and emotions of the Crusade as an outside party and if he takes any side at all it is with the Muslims. He often speaks badly of King Richard and he speaks well of Saladin, the sultan. He portrays Richard as a greedy, anti-Semite, who is intolerable of other religions, while he shows Saladin as tolerant to the Jews, reasonable, and an overall good leader. Reston wrote this book mostly to inform readers about the third Crusade but also to add some of his own insights. His thesis was a little unclear but he stated that the Crusades were the most violent event in history all the way up to Hitler’s rein. Reston did a good job in proving this when he told of battles and then analyzed them. He told of a time when King Richard had twenty thousand Muslims executed and when Saladin had Reginald of Chatillon beheaded along with many other Christian prisoners.
The battle I will be discussing is the battle of Tora Bora. The engagement took place in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan from December 12, 2001 to December 17, 2001. The units involved were from the CIA, numerous Special Forces groups, Pakistani soldiers and local anti-Taliban fighters. The mission given to the forces was to kill Osama bin Laden from the caves, leave the body with the Taliban and disrupt the Al Qaeda organization by removing their leader. The intent was to infiltrate the cave system, remove bin Laden and return home.
The American Revolution was a tough time for America and the people who fought it. Many wars were fought and many people died, but throughout the whole events moments of inspiration were evident. One such time was in the Battle of Lexington which took place on April 19th, 1775 and one such poem the truly reflects it is called The Battle of Lexington which was written by Sidney Lanier. The poem reflects the thoughts of this man and Paul Revere during this time.
Unfortunately, the role of ignorance and jealousy combining to breed fear and hatred is a recurring theme in history ultimately exhibiting itself in the form of prejudice. As demonstrated through the altering of historical events in The Song of Roland, the conflict between the Christian and Islamic religions takes precedence over the more narrow scope of any specific battle and is shaped, at least in part by the blind perception of a prejudice born of the ignorance and envy Christian Europe had for representatives of the non-Christian world. To fully see this prejudice and its effect on the participants, it is necessary to recognize the circumstances of the "real" battle along with the altering characters and settings attributed to its later writing, understand the character and beliefs of the participants, and carefully examine the text itself to see how prejudice comes into play.
Beginning not too long after the failure of the Second Crusade, the Third Crusade (also known as the Kings' Crusade) spanned from 1189 to 1192. It's purpose was to reclaim the Holy Land from Saladin, and was largely successful, and the European leaders managed to capture the cities Acre and Jaffa, as well undo the majority of Saladin's previous conquests. However, it was unable to capture Jerusalem, the key motivation to the Crusades. The key figures in this Crusade were Richard I of England (also known as Richard the Lionhearted), King Philip II of France, and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades by Rodney Stark, will cause readers to question much of what they know about the Crusades, the Crusaders themselves, and the formidable Muslim forces they encountered along the way in liberation of the Holy Land. Stark gives compelling reasons for the Crusades, and argues that readers should not be too quick in following the lead of historians who cast the Crusaders in less than positive light. Stark makes his case supported by evidence that vindicates the valiant struggles of the Crusaders who accomplished the task of keeping Christianity alive through troubled times.
1. What is the difference between Introduction 2. What is the difference between History 3. What is the difference between a's Planning / Preparation 4.
There was a series of brutal wars undertaken by the Christians of Europe, this took place between the 11th and 14th century, that was the crusades. It happened to recover the great holy lands from the Muslims.
...mpire weak and to be invaded by the crusaders and the Mongols in the 11th and 12th centuries. The invasion led to the destruction of all libraries and educational institutions and with that came the fall of the Abbasid Dynasty.
The Crusades began in the year 1095, when Pope Urban II called for armies of Christians to go to war against Muslims in the Holy Land. During the First Crusades, the invading Christians successfully captured Jerusalem in 1099. During this time, the invading Christians had constructed Latin Christian states, even though the Muslims in the region pledged to a holy war in order to defend their religion and regain control of the land. The civil relations that the Crusaders and their Christian allies in the Byzantine Empire had culminated had begun to degenerate in the Siege of Constantinople in 1204 during the Third Crusade. Throughout the rise of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt near the end of the 13th century, the final retribution for the Crusaders