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Short term impact made by the crusades
The negative impact of crusades
Short term impact made by the crusades
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In 1071, the Byzantine Army was destroyed by the Turks who also captured their emperor, which led up to the mercenary conquering Syria and Palestine, Leaving the City of Jerusalem left to be taken by more oppressive leaders. The new leaders of Jerusalem hated the Christians and committed a widespread genocide of over 3000 Christians along with destroying churches or using them as stables. But what they didn’t realize was that it would throw their economy way out of balance which is what the old leaders had realized. This genocide of the Christian people is what sparked the need for crusades and the Rise of Christian Soldiers wanting to avenge their deaths. Emperor Alexius I sent an ambassador to Pope Urban II regarding the atrocities in Jerusalem …show more content…
and the growing threat of the Turks to Constantinople and the whole of Europe. Pope Urban II called a great council of the Church at Placentia, in Italy, to consider the appeal but their decisions were postponed until later that year. Finally later that year in November, the Pope called a grand decree to crusade against the infidels. The next year in August, Emperor Alexius I sent the “Peoples Crusade” against their enemies, Most were unarmed. Two months after being sent the Peoples Crusade was annihilated by the Turks in Anatolia. Two years after the destruction of the people’s crusade on July 15 1099, the soldiers of the first crusade successfully scaled the walls of Jerusalem and took back their Holy City. (Wikipedia) The First Crusade The first Crusade was a long brutal journey to get to the Middle East. It started as a pilgrimage made by Europeans, mostly from France and Germany but ended up as a Military expedition by the crusaders. Crusaders would cut out red crosses and sew them to their tunics to show that they were holy warriors for God. The whole crusade was the Popes response to the plea for assistance from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius, who wanted help to repel the offensive push by the Turks from Anatolia. He feared that his country might also fall to the Muslims as it was very close to the territory captured by the Muslims. Constantinople is a part of what we call to this modern day, Turkey. Their journey was long and harsh through the hot deserts and cold snowy mountains. Some people were forced to drink their own urine or even animal’s blood. There was four separate proper crusader armies but also a large amount of small armies that were there at the ready. But they had no sort of proper command. The first place the crusaders attacked was the fortress city of Nicea. This city was taken by the Crusaders without a lot of resistance because of the city’s leader being off leading a battle. The next target for the Crusaders was Antioch, a strongly protected fortified Turkish City. There was a seven month long siege on the Turkish city but finally they prevailed. Now onto their main mission/target, Jerusalem. The Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem and launched an assault on the city, and they captured it in July, 1099. The city had not been under Christian rule in over 461 years and when the Byzantine Emperor tried to take it back over the Crusader army refused. The first Crusade was a response to the Muslim conquests and was followed by the second through ninth crusades. (historylearningsite) The Second & Third Crusade The Second Crusade was a response to the fall of the County of Edessa, which had fallen the previous year to the forces of Zengi, it was also the second major crusade launched. The Second Crusade was proclaimed by Pope Eugene III, and was the first crusade to be led by European kings, with most popular King Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, with help from a number of other European nobles. Both armies marched separately across Europe, crossing through the Byzantine Empire and into Anatolia. Both armies were later defeated by the Turks. It is speculated that Byzantine emperor, Manuel I Comnenus, was said to have ordered the Turks to attack the armies. With the Remnants of their armies Conrad and Louis led an attack that was advised against but continued anyways against Damascus. This later influenced the fall of Jerusalem and later on the beginning of the Third Crusade. The Third Crusade began when Henry the II of England and Phillip II of France ended their conflict in order to begin their Crusade. Henry however died and the Army was left to his successor, Richard I, or more commonly known as Richard the Lionheart. The Roman emperor responded to their Call to Arms but later drowned on his way to war in a river in which the grief stricken men in awe of the emperors death led to most of the soldiers to leave for home. But with the failure of the Second Crusade, the Europeans were facing the unification of Egyptian and Syrian forces under the command of Saladin, who employed them to reduce the Christian states and to recapture Jerusalem in 1187. Saladin however failed to defeat Richard in battle which allowed Richard to capture many coastal cities. But Richard knew he must write a treaty with Saladin allowing for Christian pilgrims and merchants to be in Jerusalem but the city would remain under Muslim control. Saladin however allowed Christian pilgrims to visit Jerusalem without official papers. He assigned soldiers to stand guard for their safety. He commanded that every kindness be extended to his guests, and he enjoyed talking with the Bishop of Jerusalem and allowed him to visit Bethlehem and Nazareth and to leave behind Latin priests and deacons. (fsmith)(metmuseum) The fourth Crusade was originally intended to recapture Jerusalem by going through Egypt. The idea of the fourth crusade was conceived at a jousting tournament. Venice would provide transport ships, crews and a year's provisions for 4,500 knights with their mounts, 9,000 squires and sergeants, sergeants were men at arms but they were the class right below knights, and 20,000 ordinary footmen, for a total of 33,500 men and 4,500 horses. The price for this army was 84,000 marks of silver. Years earlier, a young teenage boy escaped from captivity in Constantinople. His name Alexius Angelus, son of the deposed Byzantine Emperor Isaac II. Six years earlier, in 1195, Isaac's brother, also named Alexius, overthrew and imprisoned him, and then took the throne for himself as Emperor Alexius III. Isaac was blinded, the traditional Byzantine way of dealing with rivals, since by custom a blind man could not be emperor. The blind Isaac II was not a harm and was not presented as a threat, but his son Alexius was able enough to escape. He made his way to the court of German King Philip of Swabia, The queen was the boy's sister, Irene. Once the Crusaders discovered this they came up with new plan, the crusaders would stop at Constantinople on their way to Egypt, overthrow the usurper Alexius III, and put the young Alexius on the throne. So the Crusaders sacked the Byzantine Empire’s capital, Constantinople. They then established states known as the Latin states. Later on the free Byzantine states rebelled and recaptured the Latin states making the West’s attack pointless. (historynet) The Children’s Crusade: Two young Lads, one in France and the other in Germany each led a crusade that was said to be given to them by god to free the Holy Land. The German boy, a young lad named Nicholas had over 20,000 followers, but many of his followers were not children but also men and women. He led them over the Alps in which many of them died of the frigid cold and then into Constantinople. The Pope applauded their effort but told them they could not achieve their goal, so they walked and tried to return to Germany. However, some of his followers got on a ship to Palestine but were never heard from again. But most of them died on the return to Germany seeing as it was such a long voyage. The French boy, Stephen of Cloyes, went to the king and told him he had received a letter from Christ telling him to lead a crusade. The king scoffed at him and told him to come back when he was older, but that did not stop young Stephen. He went around the country preaching from his letter and he had gained over 30,000 followers, all were children. He led the 30,000 children on a march across France. Stephen had been wrong and the sea did not part for them when they arrived at the seashore so they had to take ships. Some left from the port of Marseilles where they were never heard from again, they were fabled to have sunk in the ocean. However, a priest returned years later from traveling around North Africa in which he met people, Adults now, who said they were on the ships and in fact only two of the seven ships who left had actually sunk. And that upon their arrival at the port they were sold into slavery. Both of these “Crusades”, I use the quotations because they were never officialy defined as crusades since neither of the Children’s crusades were blessed by the pope. (historylearningsite) The fifth Crusade used a different tactic by trying to capture a state in Egypt, Ayyubid, they believed if they could break Egypt’s unity they could take back Jerusalem.
The Pope belived that this crusade should be controlled by the church in order to not repeat mistakes made by the previous crusades. The Pope then organized a crusading army led by King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI of Austria, who were later joined by Oliver of Cologne and his vast army, Along with a mixed army of Dutch, Flemish, and Frisan soldiers led by William I. (encyclo of crusades) This was by far the most funded, organized, and widespread recruited than any of the crusades. Even when Pope Innocent III died, it did not stop the plan to see it through at all. But the new Pope decided to see it through, they left acre and planned an attack on Damietta, a key Egyptian settlement which guarded the main route up the Nile river to Cairo. With their forced enlarged due to the arrival of a large number of French Crusaders led by Cardinal-Legate Pelagius, the Crusaders believed that they were well on their way to taking control of Damietta, However the city held out for many months. The city tried to come up with a peace treaty with the Crusaders but the crusaders ignored it and continued attacking the city. Damietta’s leader, the Sultan Al-Adil, tried to thwart the crusaders advance to Cairo, but upon realizing the size of the Crusader army retreated. But upon the arrival of the …show more content…
Crusader army to the Nile, they forgot to consider the Nile’s flooding. So the Crusaders attempted to retreat but the Egyptian Army cut them down and forced the Crusaders to hand back over the city of Damietta. The Fifth Crusade was the last attempt that was organized by the church in which different nations came together to fight to recover the Holy Land. (historylearningsite) The End of the Crusades The Sixth Crusade was proportionally 100x more successful than the previous crusades, because it was actually successful, King Fredrick achieved control of the Holy Land all by his own army. Seeing that his army was nowhere near the size of the previous armies who attempted to take back the Holy Land, he decided to use trickery rather than force. So he approached the sultan of Egypt, Al-Kamil, and lied about the true size of his fighting force. He said that he had a grand army and would rather be diplomatic rather than using force. With the Sultan of Egypt preoccupied with a revolt in Syria he agreed to giving him Jerusalem, Nazareth and a couple other small towns, in exchange for a decade-long truce. He had done what others could not without any casualties. 15 years later Jerusalem would be conquered by the Turks. Later on in the 7th and 8th Crusades, individual kingdoms would try to imitate this feat but would fail miserably. (historylearning) The Seventh Crusade was led by King Louis IX of France, he traveled alongside 100 ships and an army of 35,000 men, (historylearning) all aiming to seize Egypt’s key towns and use them as hostages to be offered in exchange for Syrian cities.
He had planned to catch the Egyptians with a smaller Army but the Sultan had managed to expand his army to 70,000 strong and the King only had 60,000. But he had plan to use his Calvary to flank the enemy and to have them cross further up the river. The Egyptians were caught off guard but the Kings brother disobeyed his orders, to hold the river bank, and instead attack a local town. This left him facing the entire army on his own, but the arrival of his infantry prevented his capture, this forced their retreat to Damietta. At the battle of Fariskur (6 April 1250), the Egyptians broke the French infantry, He was captured along with thousands of his troops, by the Egyptian army led by the Ayyubid Sultan Turanshah supported by the Bahariyya Mamluks. Approximately 800,000 livre (historyofwar) were paid in ransom for King Louis and thousands of his
men. The final Crusades (8th & 9th) These two crusades are normally referred to as continuations of each other, The 8th crusade was launched by King Louis the IX, he was disturbed by the attacks on Christians states by the Mamluk sultan Baibars in Syria. (Princeton) This crusade was very unpopular so there was little support. Many men died when they arrived on the African coast due to the poor drinking water. King Louis himself died on the second day. Because of further diseases the siege of Tunis was abandoned on October 30th by an agreement with the sultan to allow trade with Tunis and residence for monks and priests. (Wikipedia) The 9th crusade was led by the English prince, Prince Edward I was, however, more fortunate than the ill-fated King Louis IX. Edward succeeded in capturing Nazareth, and in compelling the sultan of Egypt to agree to a treaty favorable to the Christians. At last it had all ended. The last of the places (Acre) held by the Christians fell before the attack of the Mamelukes of Egypt, and with this event the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem came to an end in 1291. (Wikipedia)
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
The First Crusade is often cited as one of the most damnable consequences of religious fanaticism. A careful inspection of the circumstances and outcomes, however, will reveal a resultant political restructuring of Europe under the banner of Christendom. The purpose of this investigation is to investigate Pope Urban II’s motives in initiating the First Crusade, with a particular focus on the consolidation of the Western Church’s influence in Europe. Among the primary sources that will be consulted are the letter sent by Patriach Alexios of Constantinople to Urban, and an account of Urban’s speech at Clermont. Relevant excerpts from both of these primary sources, as well as contextual evidence and a wide array of historiography, will be taken
In 1095 Pope Urban II called all Christians to take part in what would become the world’s greatest Holy War in all of history. Urban’s called on Christians to take up arms and help fight to take the Holy Land of Jerusalem back from the accursed Muslims. During this time of war, the whole world changed. Land boundaries shifted, men gained and lost and gained power again, and bonds were forged and broken. The Crusades had a great impact on the world that will last forever.
While expanding his empire across Europe, Charlemagne did remember that he was indeed a Christian, and converted many of the tribes he conquered, to Christianity. However, when 4,500 Saxons resisted, they were slaughtered ("Charlemagne"). But, for better or for worse, by 1000 AD Christianity had spread like wildfire throughout most of Europe, and the Catholic Church, who had crowned our friend Charlemagne the Emperor, had risen to power. Meanwhile, the Seljuk Turks had taken Jerusalem and were threatening Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire (“Crusades”). Near the end of the eleventh century, Emperor Alexius wrote a letter to Pope Urban the II that called for the assistance of his fellow Christians in West (“Crusades”). And, Pope Urban, was more than happy to assemble an army for such a worthy cause, and he also hoped that it might improve the relations between the two
The emperor of the Byzantine Emperor was upset with Turks encroaching on his empire. He went to the Pope Urban II and complained. He made up atrocities about the Turks. In 1096, The Pope Urban II promoted the Crusade to reclaim the Holy Land from the barbaric Turks. These crusades lasted till the 13th century. In the process, Jews were persecuted and lots of looting took place. Many countries took interest in the Crusades because they were ready for travel and adventure. They wanted to expand trade with the Middle and Far East and so the Crusades gave them a chance to open up trade routes with those countries. They used Christianity to justify the Crusades. In reality, they wanted to expand trade and gain more territorial land.
The Crusades were the first tactical mission by Western Christianity in order to recapture the Muslim conquered Holy Lands. Several people have been accredited with the launch of the crusades including Peter the Hermit however it is now understood that this responsibility rested primarily with Pope Urban II . The main goal of the Crusades was the results of an appeal from Alexius II, who had pleaded for Western Volunteers help with the prevention of any further invasions. The Pope’s actions are viewed as him answering the pleas of help of another in need, fulfilling his Christian right. However, from reading the documents it is apparent that Pope Urban had ulterior motives for encouraging engagement in the war against the Turks. The documents and supporting arguments now highlight that the Pope not only sought to recruit soldiers to help but also to challenge those who had harmed the Christians community and annihilate the Muslims. He put forth the idea that failure to recapture this lands would anger God and that by participating, God would redeem them of their previous sins.in a time of deep devoutness, it is clear this would have been a huge enticement for men to engage in the battle. Whether his motives were clear or not to his people, Pope Urban’s speeches claiming that “Deus vult!” (God wills it) encouraged many Christians to participate and take the cross.
The crusades in the middle ages were a long-lasting series of vigorous wars between Christians and Muslims over the Holy Land, Jerusalem. The crusades lasted for almost two hundred years. They began in 1099 and approximately ended in 1291. (What were the motives, and causes of these gruesome wars?) is the first question one might ask. To properly answer this question, I am about to analyze the first four crusades that had began in 1099 and ended in 1212.
In 1095, Pope Urban the second, was the one who declared religious war against the Muslims now known as the Crusades. In order to get an army, plenary indulgences was offered to anyone who joined resulted in tens of thousands joining in on the campaign. This meant that anyone who joined was “cleansed” of their sins by the Pope which helped believers be more pure in the spiritual world. The crusades began in the late eleventh century by the Western European Christians. These Europeans went with armies to take back the Holy Lands which is modern day Israel, or as the Jews and Christians refer to as Palestine. “ The first official armies to take part in the pope’s crusade departed from Kingdoms in Germany, France, and Italy in August 1096 and began to arrive in Constantinople in late 1096 and early 1097” (5). For the next 200 years, Christians and Muslims would battle over the Holy Lands.
The First Crusade from 1095 to 1099 has been seen as a successful crusade. The First Crusaders carefully planned out their attacks to help promote religion throughout the lands. As the First Crusade set the example of what a successful crusade should do, the following crusades failed to maintain control of the Holy Land. Crusades following after the First Crusade weren’t as fortunate with maintaining the Holy Land due united forces of Muslims, lack of organization, and lack of religious focus.
In 1095, Pope Urban II called the first crusade. Happening between 1096 and 1099, the first crusade was both a military expedition and a mass movement of people with the simple goal of reclaiming the Holy Lands taken by the Muslims in their conquests of the Levant. The crusade ended with the capture of Jerusalem in July 1099. However, there has been much debate about whether the First Crusade can be considered an ‘armed pilgrimage’ or whether it has to be considered as a holy war. This view is complicated due to the ways in which the Crusade was presented and how the penitential nature of it changed throughout the course of the Crusade.
A main cause of the Crusades was the treatment of Christian pilgrims. They were robbed, beaten, and then sold. The main group of Turks, the Seljuk Turks, were threatening and growing in power. The Byzantine Emperor, Alexus I, began to become worried and sent out an urgent plea to Pope Urban II, in Rome. He requested for Christian knights to help him fight the Turks. Pope Urban II did agree to his appeal although Byzantine Emperors and Roman Popes were longtime rivals. He also did agree with Alexus I, in fearing that the Turks were expanding. Pope Urban encouraged French and German Bishops and Nobles to also take part in this. “ An accused race has violently invaded the lands of those Christians and had depopulated them by pillage and fire.” This is when Pope Urban II called for a crusade to free the Holy Land. Urban did agree to this having some of his own motives in mind. He was hoping his power would grow in ...
In the end of it all, there were various good things that happened as a result of the
When Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim forces and also to aid the Byzantine Empire which was under Muslim attack both Permit the Hermit and Godfrey of Bouillon volunteered to be in the crusade in order to help the crusaders take back the Holy Land and Liberate it and to assist the Byzantine Empire. They both led people in the Crusade and went into battle. This meant that they had to kill people if they ever wanted to control the areas they were trying to take over. Both of their men would capture towns and cities that they come across and eliminated everybody in it until they reach Jerusalem and capture
Crusading, much like Imperialism in the 20th century, was all about expansion. During the middle ages however, it was more about the expansion of religion rather then power, or at least that’s the way it was preached. Crusading by definition is; “ a holy war authorized by the pope, who proclaimed it in the name of god of Christ. It was believed to be Christ’s own enterprise, legitimized by his personal mandate” (1). This essay examines the background of the crusades to offer a better understanding as to why they occurred. It also examines the effects that the crusades had on the world. It is easy to look at the crusades as a violent meaningless act, but one must understand the type of setting this movement occurred during. This was a time when if you took part in the crusades, you were seen as a warrior of god, recruited by the pope. Any man who fought in the name of god would be rewarded in heaven. Popular belief in the 10th and 11th centuries was that the more you did for god, the less accountable you were for you’re past sins. The more deeds you did, the better your credit in the ‘Treasury of God’ (2). The Treasury of God is a summarization of the good deed outweighing the bad deed principle of the time. Acts of violence in the name of god are far less common in the world today. But, as seen with September 11th, jihad or holy war is still occurring. This essay gives a basic timeline and underlying principles behind the crusading missions. Justification for these acts remains unclear and is simply opinion based.
...ty of the Nile’s flooding, they were trapped behind a canal and slaughtered from all sides by the Egyptians who were led by the leader of the Damietta, Sultan Al-Adil. With their army slaughtered and no reinforcements, the Crusaders had no choice but to return Damietta to the Egyptians. This was the final failure of the Crusades era, after this, the Church did not unify any other countries in order to take back Jerusalem.