Possible For Christian Crusaders example essay topic

... Through out time, history has had a tendency to repeat it self. It has done so in good means as well as bad. People learn from the past and apply it to their every day lives. Although people try to do the right thing and not follow mistakes that have been already made, they just seem to come about.

This day in age, out country is experiencing a situation that is extremely similar to that that occurred in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries, that which is the crusades. Crusades now can be defined as all wars undertaken in pursuance of a vow, and directed against infidels. But back in the middle ages it was known as any military expedition under taken by the Christians of Europe (Random House Webster's 318). On September 11, 2001 the people of America as well as all other free countries in our nation experience a new feeling that we have not know of.

We were being attacked for our beliefs, for the way we live our lives. This what we were feeling, was being fought for during the time of the Crusades. The Christians and the Muslims were fighting against one another in order to spread their religion, or end the other. The people who were the leaders of the attack were Muslims. Muslims are people who follow the religion of Islam. Islam is a religion that was founded by a man named Muhammad.

The followers of Muhammad believe that he received messages from God. Those messages all established into the rules that the Muslims live by, and they are all recorded in the Koran. Some of the laws forbade Muslims to eat pork, drink alcohol, gamble or lend money for interests. But the main beliefs of the Muslims are "The Five Pillars". Which are to have faith in God (Allah). To pray five times a day facing in the direction of Mecca.

For a person to give part of their income to charity. To fast during the month of Ramadan, and to promise to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca at least ounce in your life. The event leading up to the start of the holy wars was the invasion of the Holy Land, Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a holy site for the Christians as well as the Muslims. For the Christians it was a sacred place because there Jesus was crucified, and on the site where his body was placed in a tomb they built the church of Holy Sepulchre. For the Muslims it was sacred because they believed that the founder of their religion, Muhammad, was able to visit heaven from there.

For that reason they built many mosques, the most famous being the Dome of the Rock. At first Jerusalem was occupied by mainly Christians, then In 637 AD a massive army surrounded Jerusalem. The Christian people held out, from giving up their land to their invaders the Muslims. They believed that a Christian army would be sent to save them. But then in February 638, the Christian bishop of Jerusalem, Sophronius, was forced to surrender the city. The Muslims treated the Christians well at first.

They just thought of them as people who were misguided in their choice of religion. They encouraged them to convert to Islam, but never forced them. The Christians who did convert were then known as ma wali meaning brother of Islam. Those who didn't convert were called meaning the protected people. Even thought the Christians were able to keep their religion, they had to take certain rules that came along with that. They had to pay an extra tax called the, as well as having to abide by extra rules.

Such as not being allowed to marry a Muslim, or to own arms or horses. But they were allowed to keep their churches. At this point in time, Europe was in what is know as the Middle Ages or the Dark Ages. This is when the land was separated by manors. All the neighboring manors would be in wars with each other, each lord trying to gain more land. So in order to stop all the wars going on between the Christians.

On November 27, 1095, with a proclamation from Pope Urban II delivered to clergy and lay folk who had gathered in a field in Clermont, central France. His topic: an appeal for help that he had received from the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I Comnenus (Dr. Tom J. Rees)". For your brethren who live in the east are in urgent need of your help, and you must hasten to give them the aid which gas often been promised them. For most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked them and have conquered the territory of Romania". All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of god with which I am invested".

(Dr. Tom J. Rees) The appeal for soldiers to fight for Jerusalem was very successful. From all over Europe great nobles, clergy and peasants began preparing for the trip. Most of the people who were going were going for the most important reason, a religious reason. They thought that God had wanted them to.

The official crusading armies did not head of for the long journey until the middle of 1096. In the end, three main bands were to traveling for Jerusalem. From northern France, groups of Norman's and Lotharingians from Lorraine, traveled under the command of Robert, Hugh and Godfrey. From southern France came the most powerful faction, under the command of Raymond of St Gilles. And from southern Italy, a large group of Normans set out under their warlord, Bohemond. The spiritual leader of these armies, and the only person, who could exercise any kind of overall authority, was Bishop Adh " ear of Le Puy, who was a close confidant of Pope Urban II.

The crusading army arrived in Byzantium over a period of several months early in 1097, and after a period of wrangling in which Godfrey's forces actually attacked the Imperial Palace at Blachernae, all the principle leaders were made to swear allegiance to Alexius. As they traveled to Jerusalem they came upon many wars with other Turkish lands as well as lands occupied by Jews. When the Christians finally reached Jerusalem, the crusader army settled down to the business of conducting the siege. They were now in a state of high spiritual fervour with miracles, signs and portents occurring daily in one of these, the dead Bishop Adh " ear appeared before a priest, Peter Desiderius, and told him that the crusaders must humble themselves before they would be allowed to enter Jerusalem.

All the leaders were convinced, and organized a fantastic procession. (Dr. Tom J. Rees) Lead by priests chanting and holding their sacred relics before them, the entire army marched in slow, solemn procession barefoot around Jerusalem. Six days after that event the final assault began. The night before the attack Godfrey of Bouillon and Robert of Normandy secretly moved their forces to an undefended part of the wall.

It was from their positions that, after more than a day of continuous fighting, the crusaders forced their way into the city". Now that our men had possession of the walls and towers, wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men (and this was merciful) cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames. Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city.

It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared with what happened in the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious services are normally chanted. What happened there? If I tell the truth, you would not believe it. Suffice to say that, in the Temple and Porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins. Indeed, it was a just and splendid judgement of God that this place should be filled with the blood of the unbelievers, since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies.

The city was filled with corpses and blood". (From Raymond d'Aguilers, Historia franco rum qui ce print Jerusalem) Once the Christians captured the land, the Franks started to live on good terms with the Saracens, although they still had battles and contained great cruelty towards prisoners captured by either side. Then on Christmas Day 1144, Zna ghi the Saracen leader captured the city of Edessa. With the fall of Edessa the kingdom of Jerusalem was in great danger.

This was especially because their king at the time Baldwin, was too young to lead the Frankish forces. So his mother, Queen Melisande, went to Pope Eugenius for help. The Pope wanted to make sure that what was to happen now would not be the same disaster as during the peoples crusade. So the Pope sent an abbot named Bernard to go directly to the Kings of Europe for help.

Bernard was a very powerful speaker. The Holy Roman Emperor, Conrad, and Louis VII of France, agreed to bring forces to save Jerusalem. In 1147, the two kings set off along the route taken by the First Crusaders. Conrad was the first to arrive in Constantiopale in September 1147. Louis arrived on month later. The Eastern Emperor, Manuel was not particularly pleased to see them, especially for the fact that he knew how much trouble the crusades of 1096 had caused.

Manuel wound up helping the crusaders cross into Asia Minor, but both the Germans and the French soon ran into trouble. Conrad's forces did not take enough food with them. His hungry army became so weak that they were very easily defeated in the battle of Dorylaeum. After the battle Conrad was forced to return to Constantinople with his remaining soldiers. On his way he met up with Louis's army, they had also gone through a terrible journey.

Thousands had died from disease, starvation or Saracen attacks. Eventually both Conrad and Louis hired ships and completed their journey to Jerusalem. In June 1148 the two kings met Baldwin and his mother at Acre. They decided to capture Damascus and prevent the Saracen forces from joining up with fellow Muslims from Egypt.

But the plan didn't go through because the crusading forces were not strong enough to capture the city. After a five-day attack the armies retreated with loss. The people of Damascus, who were for the crusaders up onto this point told the Saracen leader Nureddin that they would support him. The failure of the Second Crusade made many people in Western Europe question whether such campaigns really did any good. So it took more than 40 years before another crusade set off, and the reason it came about was the fall of Jerusalem. Jerusalem remained under the threat from the Saracens since the time of the Second Crusade.

Messengers would regularly come from the city to ask help from Europe. Then in 1165 things became so bad that Pope Alexander called for a crusade, but to this idea the kings of Europe rejected it because they were to busy, as well as they didn't want to risk such a dangerous expedition. The rulers of Western Europe didn't realize that the Saracens were gaining strength in the Holy Land. They had a new leader Sultan Saladin.

Today he is known as one of the greatest leaders in Arab history, for he saved Jerusalem from the Christians. Saladin controlled a large area of land bordering the Christian states. He also had made peace with the King of Jerusalem, but another Frankish noble, Reynald of Chatillon, broke the peace terms. He attacked a group of Saracen pilgrims in which Saladin's sister was traveling. Saladin got back at him by capturing the town of Tiberias. Then in 1187 King Guy of Jerusalem tried to win back Tiberias.

When Saladin heard that Guy was moving towards Tiberias, he ordered his troops to retreat to the edge of a nearby lade. He knew that Guy's troops were short of water and that that would affects his men's ability to fight. Then to weaken the forces further, Saladin ordered his archers to attack them at they marched. All of Saladins tactics worked.

When the battle had begun, Guy's army complained that they were dying of thirst and could not fight. Many of Guy's men were slaughtered, and both Guy and Reynald were taken prisoner. This battle became known as the battle of Hattie. From then on Castles and cities sometimes would surrender just at the very sight of Saladins huge army. Then on October 2 Saladin won his biggest prize- Jerusalem. (John Child 25) In the western world it was shocking to find out that Saladin had captured Jerusalem.

Pope Urban was said to have died from grief after hearing the news. The people were all confused wondering how God could let such a horrible thing happen, of ounce more letting Jerusalem go in to the hands of the Muslims. So they thought that another crusade would help make up for their wrong doings. In 1189 three of Europe kings raised forces to go to the Holy Land. From France came Philip II, from Germany the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and from England Richard 'the Lionheart'.

When the crusaders set out, they experienced much of the same as the people of the previous two crusades. When Barbarossa and his army came to Asia Minor and was a few days away from Antioch, a tragic thing happened. As Barbarossa was bathing in the river Gor lu, he was drowned. Many of his soldiers were so upset that they returned home. Only a small part of his army made it to the Holy Land. Borbarossa's death had a large affect on the crusade since Richard and Philip accepted him as a leader.

Then eventually the two set of, traveling by sea. Their journey was very slow, and arrived in Acre in the early summer of 1191. The arrival of Richard and Philip strengthened the Frankish forces and they soon were able to take the city. Then after the victory Richard set off for Jerusalem.

On his journey to Jerusalem he heard news that he was needed in England. So he signed a three-year truce with Saladin and went home. Later in 1198 Pope Innocent called for a crusade. He had done this, because he hoped that a crusade would stop the fighting going on between the two Christian Churches. The western Catholic Church, which was located in Rome and the Eastern Church, based in Constantinople.

The leaders of the fourth crusade came mostly from France and Flanders, which consisted mostly of barons and knights. In order to get to Jerusalem they were to take ships, which they would get, from the Venetians. The Venetians were willing to provide them with ships but they were asking for a very high price. Since the crusaders couldn't come up with the money, they asked them to capture the Hungarian town of Zara instead. This city was a trading rival of Venice. But it was also a Christian city and the Pope told the army's not to attack it.

The crusaders felt they had no choice and they attacked and captured the town. Since the original plan of the crusaders was to attack the Muslims of Egypt, and to establish control there in order to deprive Saracens from both the Egyptian fleet and their main source of grain. But the time the crusaders spent capturing Zara meant that their plan would have to wait for better weather in the spring of 1203. One of the crusaders, was Alexius. Alexius was the Eastern Emperors son who had just recently been overthrown by his enemies in Constantinople.

Alexius said that if the crusaders restored his father to the throne, then he would make sure the Greek forces of Eastern Empire helped the crusades attack Egypt. The leaders of the crusade decided to help Alexius because they figured that the Greek forces would be very useful to them. Some of the French were so discussed by the fact that they kept on stalling with getting to Egypt that the people went home, or others just made their own way to the Holy Land. In June 1203 Isaac, Alexius father was restored to the throne as a joint Emperor with Alexius. Now that the crusaders did what they were asked to Alexius wasn't able to keep his part of the deal. He was not able to raise enough money to pay off the Venetians, nor could he get his people to agree to fight against the Saracens.

Because of this both Alexius and his father were murdered by their fellow Greeks. Backed by the Pope the crusaders tried to take over the city. This made it seen that the crusade was now against Christian Constantinople, not against the Saracen. After a second attack on the city, Constantinople was split in two by Baldwin of Flanders who was one of the leaders of the crusades, and by the Venetians. The city became very wealthy. But within 60 years the city was recaptured by the Greeks and re-established as the head of the Eastern Empire.

During the first half of the 13th century, at the time of Saladin's death his empire was split up and none of the rulers of the individual states felt powerful enough to attack the Franks. To them it seemed easier to just make a truce with them especially as the Muslims were making money from trading with the Frankish States. Since the Franks didn't think that there was a threat, they failed to keep their defenses in good condition. Also there were few reinforcements from Europe.

New crusaders thought it was more useful to fight for Christianity in Spain, Egypt and the Baltic. But in 1244 the Muslims recaptured Jerusalem. This didn't stop the Franks from continuing to fight between them selves, there even showed to be times when they went to war with each other. Hope came to the crusader states in 1260 when a new force entered the are.

Those which were the Mongols from Eastern Europe. The Mongols hated Muslims, so the Franks hoped that they would reach an alliance with them. But in 1260 the Muslims of Egypt defeated the Mongols. Then in 1261 Baybars became the Sultan of Egypt. Baybars was a cruel and intolerant man who hated Christians; he was determined to destroy the crusader states. The next century consisted of several attempts to win back the land that the First Crusade had won, but none of them were ever successful.

During the time of the crusades, Christians and Muslims met each other on a regular basis, which did not always consist of being in a battlefield. In many places they lived in the same cities and towns. Meeting together gave them the chance to learn from each other. Christian knights who went to live in the Middle East found that the people there had a different way of life.

They ate different foods. They dressed in different clothes. They knew different things. Some crusaders copied the new things that they saw. Christians and Muslims were not only living together in the Middle East; they lived together in Spain and in Sicily too. It was in these places that most of the cultural diffusion took place.

Muslim doctors were skilled in medicine. They used Greek ideas that had been lost in the west of Europe. Some used drugs which western people had never seen. The Arab way of writing numbers became popular in the west; these numbers are still used in Europe today. Also western builders copied some of the building styles found in the Middle East and Spain. Pointed arches were used in many Muslim buildings.

Many books end their study of the crusades at the end of the 13th century. This is because this is when the last crusader kingdom at Acre was destroyed. The crusades that many people are most interested in are the ones that aimed at capturing Jerusalem from the Muslims. By 1300 this type of crusade had failed. (John Child 62) The First Crusade made people think that is possible for Christian crusaders to control the Middle East. Two hundred years after that, it was clear to them that it was not actually a possibility.

Although they had realized that it was not the end of the crusades. Other types continued. There were five crusades against the Hussites. Also there were crusades that weren't aimed at capturing Jerusalem but trying to stop the Turks from getting more powerful. In conclusion we have seen how the crusades took place and what affects they left on world history.

In this present day we can still see some of the same ideas that lay behind the crusades. The horrific tragedy of September 11th is justified by some Muslim groups as a strong statement on behalf of the one and only god- Allah (or so they think). It is scary to consider that The Holy War of the 11th-13th century has a chance of reawakening in the 21st century. That is why we must know the facts and their consequences about world history, to prevent its occurrence in the present day..