History of the Crusades - Essay Example

THE CRUSADES INTRODUCTION: The term “Crusades” describes military expeditions which were supposed to be religiously inspired and considered as pilgimages. It refers mainly to medieval west European Christians’ military expeditions to regain and to retain the “Holy Land”, that is Palestine, from the Moslems. The term’s origin is from the Portuguese cruzado: which means “mark with a cross”, a red Greek-cross was attached to the outer garments of the original participants (Sloan, 2000). Historians have numbered eight expeditions to the Holy Land, though some group the 7th and 8th together for a total of seven crusades. However, there was a steady stream of armies from Europe to the Holy Land, so it is nearly impossible to distinguish separate campaigns. DISCUSSION: The original Crusades in the Levant were an outgrowth of the revival of religious feeling and missionary zeal which had begun in Europe in the tenth century. Considered as “Holy Wars” towards Christ’s Sepulchre, the Crusades were inspired by the priestly power that represented to the people the other world of divinity. The church was the primary force that transformed an appeal for reinforcements into a holy war for the conquest of Palestine (Sloan, 2000). Madden (2002) agrees that for virtually all western Christians, the Crusades were divinely sanctioned wars against the enemies of Christ and his Church. According to Nicolle (2001), the Crusades were an unusual series of conflicts because they involved three or more distinct groups of people: the western European Christians generally known as Latins or Franks, the Muslims of the Middle-East or North Africa; the Byzantine or other orthodox Christians of what are now Turkey and the Balkans. Before the first Crusade, most western European states had only a distant relationship with the Muslims of the Eastern Mediterranean 1. Major Developments in Western and Eastern Europe that Encouraged the Emergence of the Crusaders There were a number of factors which led to the Crusades: One was a period of increased local famine and disease which made it necessary to search for a better life, even if dangerous treks had to be undertaken. There was the expediency of exploring new areas for new opportunities. With the establishment of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, a continuous stream of settlers moved from the West to Outremer. The Holy Wars were part of the secular policy of the papacy that headed the Western Christian Church (Atiya, 1962). Other reasons were that there was Papal interest in exerting more control over the internal affairs of the Normans and the French in western Europe while wishing to direct the fighting instinct of the laity, and link religious fervor to the concept of a crusade. There was also great difficulty for Christians to fulfill their desires for pilgrimage directly to Jerusalem, and extraordinary weakness in Byzantine empire and losses to Turks. Furthermore, there was restless eagerness on the part of military leaders to use the increased military power of western Europeans, and similarly desire to exploit increased Christian naval strength throughout the Mediterranean for commercial advantage (Sloan, 2000). Also, unity between eastern and western Christians was deemed necessary (Winston, Theo 352). 2. Why the Crusaders Failed to Establish Lasting Political and Religious Control Over the Holy Land The crusades to the East were taken up as an errand of mercy to save the Christians living there, and a war of righteousness to restore the land of Christ to his followers on earth. “Even after the fall of the Crusader States in 1291, the fight for the Holy Land remained an important matter for western Christians. Yet the alarming expansion of the Ottoman Empire soon forced Europeans to put aside intentions of reclaiming Jerusalem, and to take up instead the defense of their own homes” (Madden, 2002). By the fourteenth century, crusades had become desperate attempts to slow Islamic expansion into Europe. These later crusades were mostly unsuccessful, and in 1453 the Turks conquered Constantinople, which was the last outpost of the Christian East. Within a few decades they had pushed deep into south-eastern Europe, making the situation very dire for Christiandom. In the sixteenth century, in danger of Muslim conquest, the crusades as an institution collapse utterly, states Madden (2002). The reasons for the collapse were: as secular authority in Europe increased, religious unity crumbled. Europeans began dividing themselves along political lines. Furthermore, there was desire for church reform in the West. Reformers wanted to change doctrines based on crusading: particularly the secular authority of the Pope and the doctrine of indulgence. Crusading was viewed along confessional lines with the spread of Protestant Reformation. Protestants like Martin Luther King attacked the crusades as the medium used by a corrupt papacy. Catholics defended the crusades, as a necessity in order to defend the faith. Even so, Protestants had to take into account the awesome power of the Turks and the danger it posed to Christian Europe. It was difficult for the Europeans to unite in defense against the common enemy, since the Protestants viewed the crusades as morally wrong. Disparity of viewpoints between the Catholics and Protestants , as well as having to defend themselves against the might of the Turks’ victorious advance into Europe were the main reasons for the Crusaders unsuccessful attempts for gaining control over the Holy Land (Madden, 2002). 3. The Political, Religious and Economic Results of the Crusades According to Peters (1971), the period 1198-1229 witnessed many momentous changes in western Europe. In 1212 the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa marked the shift of power from Moslems to Christians in Spain.. After 1214, western Europe was destined to be exclusively Christian and was divided into three groupings largely defined by the great geographical divisions: the Kingdom of En­gland to the north of the Channel, the Kingdom of France between the Channel and the Pyrenees, and the Spanish kingdoms to the south of the Pyrenees. “Historians consider the Crusades the single most important series of events in the Middle Ages. The significant changes in the structure of European society that took place in the 12th and 13th centuries were long considered the direct result of Europes participation in the Crusades”, states About, Inc (2007). The effort of raising armies and providing supplies for Crusaders stimulated the economy; trade benefited as well, especially once the Crusader States were established. Interaction between the East and West affected European culture in areas of art and architecture, literature and education. Politically, the crusades resulted in permanent Christian-Muslim distrust, from the tolerance that Muslims had shown towards the Christians earlier on their land (Winston, Theo 352). Pope Urban II’s vision of directing the energies of warring knights outward succeeded in reducing war within Europe. Having a common foe and common objective, even for those who didnt participate in the Crusade, fostered a view of Christendom as a united entity, promoting the religion. Other spiritual results of the crusades were that there was theological focus on spiritual warfare in a physical way, rise of religious knights such as the Knights Templar, increased awareness of religious relics in Holy Land, narrative sense of Christ’s humanity spurred Christian piety, and there was increased international power of the pope (Gonzalez, 1999) 4. The Most Important One of the All the Crusades. The Christians had recaptured the Holy Lands by the end of the second Crusade, but a Muslim and Kurdish general named Saladin launched a “jihad” (Arabic) or struggle that managed to recapture Jerusalem. The Kurds live between the Turks and Arabs in the mountainous lands of northern Iraq and eastern Turkey. The most important of the Crusades would be the third one, in which the Christians fought to regain control over Jerusalem which they lost after winning it from the Muslims in the first crusade. Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in 1187, due to which Christians launched the Third Crusade led by King Richard “the Lion-Hearted” of England.  The Christians won some battles in the Third Crusade, but Saladin was able to hold Jerusalem for the Muslims.  The two opposing armies agreed to a truce that allowed the Muslims control the Holy Lands, but Christians were free to visit their shrines. (Child, et al, 1997). The Muslims treated the Christians tolerantly and well, believing them to be misguided in their religious beliefs. But after this crusade, the opposition between the two armies became stronger and more violent, with further crusades launched by the papacy, to win back Christian territory. CONCLUSION: Thus it is observed that there were certain conditions in eastern and western Europe that encouraged the emergence of the Crusaders. The developments between Christian crusaders and the Muslim occupiers of the Holy Land led to several Christian expeditions in order to win back the lost Holy territory. These crusades were wars that were waged in an extremely violent fashion. The crusaders failed to establish permanent control over the Holy Land, as their opposition was too strong and equally motivated to keep the territory. The impact of the crusades were numerous, many of them beneficial due to the necessary widening of European horizons to other places and cultures. REFERENCES About, Inc., a part of The New York Times Company. (2007). “Medieval History: Crusade Basics”. Web site: http://historymedren.about.com/od/crusades/p/crusadesbasics.htm Atiya, Aziz S. (1962). Crusade, Commerce and Culture. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. Child, John C; Kelly, Nigel; Whittock, Martin John. (1997). The Crusades. Chicago: Harcourt Heinemann. Gonzalez, Justo L. (1999). The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1. New York: Harper-Collins Sloan, John. (2000). “The Crusades in the Levant”. Military History Database. Xenophone Group Web page: http://xenophongroup.com/montjoie/crusade2.htm Madden, Thomas F. (2002). The Crusades: The Essential Readings. The United States of America: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. Nicolle, David. (2001). The Crusades. Great Britain: Osprey Publishing, Ltd. Peters, Edward. (1971). Christian Society and the Crusades: 1198-1229. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Winston, Rev. Jacquelyn E. “The Crusades and the Black Plague”. Church History: Theo 352. Web site: http://home.apu.edu/~jwinston/crusades.pdf Read More