Changes

{{Middle Ages}}

{{Middle Ages}}

[[Image:Crusader.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A returning Crusader]]

[[Image:Crusader.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A returning Crusader]]

'''The Crusades''' (1095-1291) were a series of European Catholic campaigns into the Middle East, fought during the Middle Ages. They were the military responses made by Catholics, from western Europe to the Pope's pleas to re-capture the Holy Land from Islamic influence. After centuries of Islamic attacks, prior to the First Crusade in 1095, Muslims had conquered about two-thirds of the Christian world.<ref name="Andrea" /><ref name="prior Islamic expansion">[https://web.archive.org/web/20250801015722/https://www.onthewing.org/user/Islam%20-%20Conquests.pdf List of Islamic Expansion on the West Prior to First Crusade]</ref><ref>O'Neill, John J. (2010) "[https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1805&context=ccr The Crusades: A Response to Islamic Aggression]," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 63: No. 63, Article 8.</ref> The First Crusade was Western Europeans performing a counter offensive, thus the First Crusade was not a initiation of conflict, but was instead the latest phase of an ongoing conflict for territory.<ref name="Andrea">Andrew Holt and Alfred Andrea. 2015. Seven Myths of the Crusades. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 9781624664038 Page 28 </ref> Current Crusade scholarship indicates that the Crusades began as both a response to Muslim aggression or attempts to recover territories that had been seized in the past.<ref name="JRS">Jonathan Riley-Smith. 2024. The Crusades: a History (4th edition). Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 1350028614. Page 21 "The cause for a crusade was particularly important because at least at first, these wars were fought primarily by volunteers. The first crusaders were such by virtue of the vows they had made; in canon law a vow had to be a voluntary act. When a pope proclaimed a crusade this could be no more than an appeal to men and women to join an expedition of their own free will. He might threaten them with hell-fire, but he could not force them to make vows, or punish them if they did not, and there were occasions when efforts at recruitment failed. A convincing case was therefore essential, even if it had to be made post hoc. Expeditions to the eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, or the Iberian Peninsula could be justified as responses to present Muslim aggression or as attempts to recover “Christian” territory that had been injuriously seized in the past."</ref><ref name="Brit">[https://web.archive.org/web/20250827143542/https://www.britannica.com/question/What-was-the-purpose-of-the-Crusades What was the purpose of the Crusades?] - Encyclopedia Britannica</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250616161718/https://apholt.com/2017/06/06/the-first-crusade-as-a-defensive-war-a-response-to-prof-gabriele/ The First Crusade as a “Defensive War”: A Response to Prof. Gabriele - Andrew Holt (2017)]</ref>  The '''First Crusade''' created new Latin states in the Holy Land. Subsequent crusades were less successful except when they attacked Byzantium.  Other medieval movements against heretics and infidels were also called crusades. The crusades ended with the Islamic recapture of all the Holy Land in 1291, when the last city controlled by crusaders, Acre, fell.

'''The Crusades''' (1095-1291) were a series of European Catholic campaigns into the Middle East, fought during the Middle Ages. They were the military responses made by Catholics, from western Europe to the Pope's pleas to re-capture the Holy Land from Islamic influence. After centuries of Islamic attacks, prior to the First Crusade in 1095, Muslims had conquered about two-thirds of the Christian world.<ref name="Andrea" /><ref name="ency">[https://web.archive.org/web/20250908132840/https://www.britannica.com/event/Crusades The Crusades] Encyclopedia Britannica </ref><ref name="prior Islamic expansion">[https://web.archive.org/web/20250801015722/https://www.onthewing.org/user/Islam%20-%20Conquests.pdf List of Islamic Expansion on the West Prior to First Crusade]</ref><ref>O'Neill, John J. (2010) "[https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1805&context=ccr The Crusades: A Response to Islamic Aggression]," Comparative Civilizations Review: Vol. 63: No. 63, Article 8.</ref> The First Crusade was Western Europeans performing a counter offensive, thus the First Crusade was not a initiation of conflict, but was instead the latest phase of an ongoing conflict for territory.<ref name="Andrea">Andrew Holt and Alfred Andrea. 2015. Seven Myths of the Crusades. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 9781624664038 Page 28 </ref> Current Crusade scholarship indicates that the Crusades began as both a response to Muslim aggression or attempts to recover territories that had been seized in the past.<ref name="JRS">Jonathan Riley-Smith. 2024. The Crusades: a History (4th edition). Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 1350028614. Page 21 "The cause for a crusade was particularly important because at least at first, these wars were fought primarily by volunteers. The first crusaders were such by virtue of the vows they had made; in canon law a vow had to be a voluntary act. When a pope proclaimed a crusade this could be no more than an appeal to men and women to join an expedition of their own free will. He might threaten them with hell-fire, but he could not force them to make vows, or punish them if they did not, and there were occasions when efforts at recruitment failed. A convincing case was therefore essential, even if it had to be made post hoc. Expeditions to the eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, or the Iberian Peninsula could be justified as responses to present Muslim aggression or as attempts to recover “Christian” territory that had been injuriously seized in the past."</ref><ref name="Brit">[https://web.archive.org/web/20250827143542/https://www.britannica.com/question/What-was-the-purpose-of-the-Crusades What was the purpose of the Crusades?] - Encyclopedia Britannica</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250616161718/https://apholt.com/2017/06/06/the-first-crusade-as-a-defensive-war-a-response-to-prof-gabriele/ The First Crusade as a “Defensive War”: A Response to Prof. Gabriele - Andrew Holt (2017)]</ref>  The '''First Crusade''' created new Latin states in the Holy Land. Subsequent crusades were less successful except when they attacked Byzantium.  Other medieval movements against heretics and infidels were also called crusades. The crusades ended with the Islamic recapture of all the Holy Land in 1291, when the last city controlled by crusaders, Acre, fell.

The crusades comprise a major chapter of [[Middle Ages|Medieval History]]. Extending over three centuries, they attracted every social class in western Europe. Kings and commoners, barons and bishops, knights and commoners&mdash;even teenagers&mdash;all participated in these expeditions to the eastern end of the Mediterranean. The motives of the crusaders were numerous: some sought riches; many sought adventure; most were moved by faith alone. Historians stress the central role of religious fervor, while mentioning as well the socio-economic factors crucial in enticing larger contingents. For example, crusaders often were fulfilling their feudal obligations. There were strong links between the papal reforms, the social necessity of violence and the exploitation of this inherent revivalistic imagination of the age of the Papacy.<ref>Douglas James, "Christians and the First Crusade," ''History Review,'' (Dec 2005), Issue 53</ref>  

The crusades comprise a major chapter of [[Middle Ages|Medieval History]]. Extending over three centuries, they attracted every social class in western Europe. Kings and commoners, barons and bishops, knights and commoners&mdash;even teenagers&mdash;all participated in these expeditions to the eastern end of the Mediterranean. The motives of the crusaders were numerous: some sought riches; many sought adventure; most were moved by faith alone. Historians stress the central role of religious fervor, while mentioning as well the socio-economic factors crucial in enticing larger contingents. For example, crusaders often were fulfilling their feudal obligations. There were strong links between the papal reforms, the social necessity of violence and the exploitation of this inherent revivalistic imagination of the age of the Papacy.<ref>Douglas James, "Christians and the First Crusade," ''History Review,'' (Dec 2005), Issue 53</ref>  

== Origin of the Crusades ==

== Origin of the Crusades ==

Current Crusade scholarship indicates that the Crusades began as both a response to Muslim aggression or attempts to recover territories that had been seized in the past.<ref name="JRS" /><ref name="Brit" /> Prior to the First Crusade in 1095, Muslims had conquered about two-thirds of the Christian world after centuries of attacks and so Western Europeans performed a counter offensive with the First Crusade.<ref name="Andrea" /> Thus, Westerners were not the initiators of conflict, but and instead the First Crusade was the latest phase of an ongoing conflict for territory.<ref name="Andrea" />

Current Crusade scholarship indicates that the Crusades began as both a response to Muslim aggression or attempts to recover territories that had been seized in the past.<ref name="JRS" /><ref name="Brit" /> Prior to the First Crusade in 1095, Muslims had conquered about two-thirds of the Christian world after centuries of attacks and so Western Europeans performed a counter offensive with the First Crusade.<ref name="ency" /><ref name="Andrea" /> Thus, Westerners were not the initiators of conflict, but and instead the First Crusade was the latest phase of an ongoing conflict for territory.<ref name="Andrea" />

The Holy Land had been part of the [[Roman Empire]], and thus the [[Byzantine Empire]], until the Islamic conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries that forced the Byzantines out and saw the area gradually turn Islamic. Calm returned and Christians had generally been permitted to visit the sacred places in the Holy Land until 1071, when the [[Seljuk Turks]] assailed the Byzantines, defeating them at the [[Battle of Manzikert]], and conquered Jerusalem from the Egyptian Fatimids the same year.  They were not friendly to Christian pilgrims, in contrast to how the Fatimids had been, and soon pilgrims came under threat of robbery or even death as they were no longer welcome.  The Byzantine Emperor [[Alexius I]] asked for aid from the west both to the Popes and the Christian monarchs.  Nothing meaningful happened.  Alexius may have been hoping for money from the Pope for the hiring of mercenaries.  

The Holy Land had been part of the [[Roman Empire]], and thus the [[Byzantine Empire]], until the Islamic conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries that forced the Byzantines out and saw the area gradually turn Islamic. Calm returned and Christians had generally been permitted to visit the sacred places in the Holy Land until 1071, when the [[Seljuk Turks]] assailed the Byzantines, defeating them at the [[Battle of Manzikert]], and conquered Jerusalem from the Egyptian Fatimids the same year.  They were not friendly to Christian pilgrims, in contrast to how the Fatimids had been, and soon pilgrims came under threat of robbery or even death as they were no longer welcome.  The Byzantine Emperor [[Alexius I]] asked for aid from the west both to the Popes and the Christian monarchs.  Nothing meaningful happened.  Alexius may have been hoping for money from the Pope for the hiring of mercenaries.  

** 249 years after the capital of the Christian world, Rome itself, was sacked by a Muslim army, and only after centuries of church burnings, killings, enslavement and forced conversions from Christianity to Muslim.

** 249 years after the capital of the Christian world, Rome itself, was sacked by a Muslim army, and only after centuries of church burnings, killings, enslavement and forced conversions from Christianity to Muslim.

By the time the Crusades finally began, Muslim armies had conquered two-thirds of the Christian world.<ref name="Andrea" /><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160322080651/http://christianheritagefellowship.com/the-crusades/ The Truth about the Crusades]</ref>

By the time the Crusades finally began, Muslim armies had conquered two-thirds of the Christian world.<ref name="ency" /><ref name="Andrea" /><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160322080651/http://christianheritagefellowship.com/the-crusades/ The Truth about the Crusades]</ref>

==Papal call==

==Papal call==