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The causes of the crusades
The causes of the crusades
World history the crusades dbq
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KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
Lucas Castelo Branco
HIST- 2023
10/18/2017
The Kingdom of Heaven is an epic film directed and produced by Ridley Scott, and written by William Monahan, filmed in Morocco. The story of the Kingdom of Heaven is set during the Crusades of the 12th century, basically about the life of Balian of Ibelin, a French blacksmith, who defends the Kingdom of Jerusalem against the Muslims, who want to reclaim the city from the Christians. In this story I could travel back in time to experience life during the era of the Crusades.
To understand better about the Kingdom of Heaven is important to know what were the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims which started primarily
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The researches and visual references were extensive, being indispensable for a recreation of scenarios, costumes and objects with absolute dominion. Scott gives a technique: the scene of Saladin's attack on Jerusalem is full of details, being shown from as many different angles as possible. Like what he did in Gladiator (including some plans are pretty much the same), the director uses tricks like a camera shake and quick cuts to re-create sequences of battles. A good point to note is that the original title of the movie, Kingdom of Heaven, is more suited to the medieval imagery of the twelfth century, since the texts of the period speak of "pilgrimage", "holy war", "expedition of the cross "and" passage ". The expression Crusade is only adopted from the thirteenth century, derived from the fact that its participants consider themselves "Soldiers of Christ marked with the sign of the cross and because of this they use an embroidered cross on clothing ". In a certain part of the film, during the siege of Saladin to Jerusalem, Balian asks: "We fight for an offense we do not do against those who were not alive to be offended. What is Jerusalem? ". This question, at once complex and revealing, can be used to discuss the multiple identities of the holy city. Holy for Christians, because it is the place of crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ; for the Jews, for having sheltered the first two great temples of Judaism, …show more content…
The members of the clergy are built as self-interested and opportunist men, while the protagonists would be models of an "enlightened" Christianity, more concerned with social order and correct posture about the divine justice than with precepts and fanaticisms religious. An example of this is the scene in which the priest steals the golden crucifix of Balian's dead wife. In another moment of the film, during the siege of Jerusalem by Saladin, a bishop recoils in the face of the attack and proposes that the city authorities run away, leaving the people there. The Church is represented as an institution without concern for the common good, but symbol of exploitation of the popular, the miserable and the oppressed, this is like a monolithic and oppressive entity. However, the medieval Church is full of contrasts, by numerous religious orders. Considering that the same institution which persecuted heretics and infidels, welcomed and helped miserable people. Balian contradicts some religious precepts in “Kingdom of Heaven”, when he allows the bodies of Christians to be burned to prevent proliferation of diseases during the siege of the walls of
In 1099 Jerusalem was besieged by bloodthirsty Christian knights from Western Europe, fueled by their religious desire for the holy land. This siege was the commencement of twelve holy crusades led by the Christian West in hope to recover Jerusalem as a Christian city. At that time, Jerusalem was, to the Christians, inconveniently occupied by Muslims. This being the first crusade, it was documented by several sources, notably by Fulcher of Chartres in his, Chronicle of the First Crusade, as well as a Muslim point of view by Ibn al-Athir, a medieval Arab historian.
In Jay Rubenstein's book, "Armies of Heaven," he tells the story of the Crusades in its entirety, beginning with the events that shaped the world into the chaotic time period of the Crusades. Unlike most books on the Crusades, Rubenstein makes an interesting connection with the apocalypse and its effect on the Crusades. In "Armies of Heaven," Rubenstein proposes that the whole reasoning behind the Crusades was to prepare for the apocalypse and the second coming of Jesus Christ. The book begins by providing the background of the city of Jerusalem and its first thousand years after Christ. Rubenstein depicts all the events that shaped the holy city's state of being at the beginning of the crusade.
The Crusades were a number of military expeditions by Europeans of the Christian faith attempting to recover the Holy Land, Jerusalem, which was then controlled by the powerful Muslim Empire. In his book People of The First Crusade, Michael Foss an independent historian tells the story of the first Crusade in vivid detail illustrating the motives behind this historic event, and what had really occurred towards the end of the eleventh century. The Christian lands of Western Europe were slowly deteriorating from invasions of the North, and the passing of corrupt laws from within the clergy and the high lords. However, these were not the only challenges those of European Christian faith had to face. Islam strengthened after the conversion of the
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.
Thomas F. Madden’s The New Concise History of the Crusades is an invaluable account of the crusades that bases its arguments off of factual evidence and draws from historical accounts. Although his arguments may be flawed because of preconceived biases, Madden is still able to present the history of the crusades in an interesting and professional manner. The themes he addresses accurately portray the crusades as both a religious and territorial endeavor. Overall, Madden successfully summarizes and analyzes the crusades in his historical review, infusing his own ideologies in the text while still maintaining a professional voice.
The Crusades took place in the Middle East between 1095 and 1291. They were used to gain a leg up on trading, have more land to show hegemony, and to please the gods. Based upon the documents, the Crusades between 1095 and 1291 were caused primarily by religious devotion rather than by the desire for economic and political gain.
... in the Kingdom of Heaven, Balian teaches the people how to get water from the earth by digging a hole in the ground. The traders teach each other skills to make themselves better and more profitable. Although the crusades had many beneficial outcomes, some were not as great. During the crusades hatred formed between Christians and Muslims. This hatred will last many years and still continues today in some aspect. The constant fighting between the Christian crusaders and the Muslim people transformed religion into a license to kill, which justified the slaughter of men women and children.
In 2005, the Palestinian director and writer, Hany Abu-Assad, released his award winning motion picture, “Paradise Now.” The film follows two Palestinian friends, over a period of two days, who are chosen by an extremist terrorist group to carry out a suicide mission in Tel-Aviv during the 2004 Intifada. The mission: to detonate a bomb strapped to their stomachs in the city. Because the film industry seldom portrays terrorists as people capable of having any sort of humanity, you would think the director of “Paradise Now” would also depict the two main characters as heartless fiends. Instead he makes an attempt to humanize the protagonists, Khaled and Said, by providing us with a glimpse into their psyches from the time they discover they’ve been recruited for a suicide bombing operation to the very last moments before Said executes the mission. The film explores how resistance, to the Israeli occupation, has taken on an identity characterized by violence, bloodshed, and revenge in Palestinian territories. Khaled and Said buy into the widely taught belief that acts of brutality against the Israeli people is the only tactic left that Palestinians have to combat the occupation. In an effort to expose the falsity of this belief, Hany Abu-Assad introduces a westernized character named Suha who plays the voice of reason and opposition. As a pacifist, she suggests a more peaceful alternative to using violence as a means to an end. Through the film “Paradise Now,” Abu-Assad not only puts a face on suicide bombers but also shows how the struggle for justice and equality must be nonviolent in order to make any significant headway in ending the cycle of oppression between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
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.
Among some of the largest conflicts in the world stand the Crusades; a brutal conflict that lasted over 200 years and was debatably one of the largest armed religious conflicts in the history of humankind. Since this is so clearly an event of importance, historians have searched vigorously for the true answer as to why the crusades began. Ultimately, because of accusatory views on both the sides of the Christians and of the Muslims, the two groups grew in such hatred of each other that they began to act in deep discrimination of each other. Moreover, Christian motives seemed to be driven mostly by the capture of Jerusalem, the dark ages of Europe and the common-folks desperation for land, wealth, and a spot in heaven. What seems to be continually
A major part of the fighters in the crusades were untrained and unqualified peasants who went out to get back the holy lands for the church from the ?evil Muslims? (Medieval Europe 164-167). This was called the Peasants Crusade. In order to get these peasants, who knew no better, to go and fight the church told them that if they were to go and fight these ?horrible Muslims? then they would automatically get admission into heaven. Of course this automatically appealed to the peasants being that they were so god-fearing. They thought that if they helped the church then they would go to heaven and so they jumped at such an opportunity to get a get-into-heaven-free card. These people in all their religious glory went in and attacked the city of Nicaea (TWW, 104), and got killed. The city of Nicaea was a well fortified city controlled by Seljuk Turks. The peasants went in and attacked and literally got slaughtered. Only 2000 peasants survived their hasty attack. Unfortunately most of the crusades went this way(TWW)
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.
In 1095, the conflict between the Christians and the Muslims started a crusade (a military campaign in defense of Christianity) for the battle of Jerusalem. This crusade involved people of other religions besides Christianity such as the Jews but they did not play a major role during this time. The Crusades lasted almost two decades and consisted of eight different crusades. With all of the events and actions that took during the Crusades, it led too many effects throughout years. There were short term effects and long term effects from the crusades that effected people of all different cultures. Two places which have had many effects from the Crusades are Europe and Islam. The Crusades has had short term and long term effects on power, economic and classical knowledge throughout Europe and Islam.
The Crusades were great military missions embarked on by the Christian nations of Europe for the purpose of rescuing the Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the hands of the Moslems. The Crusades were considered Holy Wars (1). Their main target was the Moslems not the Jews, although campaigns were also waged against pagan Slavs, Jews, Russian and Greek orthodox Christians, Mongols, Cathars, Hussites, Waldensians Old Prussians, and political enemies of the popes (2). There were many Crusades some more significant than others, but in general the Crusades was an important event in the history of Medieval Europe.
From 1095 to 1291 C.E., the Crusades spread across Europe in the name of Christianity. The high tension between the Muslims and the Christians was caused by the want of the city of Jerusalem. The Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims believed Jerusalem was theirs, and went to violent efforts to achieve it. In the movie, Kingdom of Heaven by Oliver Stone, the main character, Balian is thrown into the fight between the Christians and the Muslims. Kingdom of Heaven is a portrayal of one of the Crusades, and although the movie was based from real people, the film makers decided to change aspects about the characters and situations to relate to current events and audiences.