The Impact of the First to Fourth Crusades

The Impact of the First to Fourth Crusades
Name
Institution
Introduction
When people get into a war, a major motive has prompted them into the action. They want to achieve a certain motive but through force and violence. Thus, war is defined as a situation of conflict between two opposing sides. War is one of the things that have been part of the human social history since time memorial. Causes of war vary from economic gain, revenge, civil, territorial gain, and defensive war, revolutionary to religion. Some of these reasons are not as common as they used to be for example not so many wars are being experienced today because of territory or revenge however other reasons have continued to cause havoc even in the 21st century for example religion. Religious conflicts have been dominant since the ancient times; historically there were the unpopular crusades that occurred in 1095-1291 AD. The Crusades period was characterized by pre-arranged wars instigated by the Latin Church in the medieval era (Abulafia, 1996). Conflict issues were to spread Christianity and expel Islam from Jerusalem. The initial base of the war was to protect holy sites that both the Muslims and Christians considered holy and shared the same interest on those sites. There exist so much literature on the crusaders especially based on religion but few texts exist on other reason for example political, cultural, economic, and other factors on the same. The below text is going to look at the main motive of the crusades and analyze why religion was not the only motive of the campaigns as it is popular known by giving the influence of politics as the other motive which led to the growth and continuation of the crusades.
Overview of the Crusades War
The crusades are observed to be a series of conflicts meant to reclaim the perceived holy region of Jerusalem. However, as again observed there is more to these wars than reclaiming the land that was said to be holy. The basic portrayal was territorial conflict but when all factors considered for example the impacts on the society and individual lives, these conflicts were motivated by other many factors besides the fight for territory. It is vital to look at these unpopular wars as the crusades had so much influence on many different people and the period did influence different groups too.
What were the crusades?
11 century Western Europe was making its move which helped the region become a significant power. The region was power but it still lagged behind the other Mediterranean civilizations, for example, it was behind the Islamic Empire of the North Africa and the Middle East, and Byzantine Empire/ Roman Empire (Malkiel, 2001). Byzantium had lost to Seljuk Turks a considerable amount of territorial land. The combination of civil war and chaos led to general Comnenus Alexius seizing the Byzantine throne also taking control of the rest of the empire. 1095, marked new dawn when the reigning Empire Comnenus asked Pope Urban II to help with mercenaries from their region to go and challenge Turkish who was observed as a threat. This request came at a time when the relationship between Christian in the West and East was improving from an earlier fractious relationship between the two sides. 1095, in Southern France during the council of Clermont, the Pope called for Christians to take up arms and go help Byzantines in reclaiming the holy land that was at the time in control of the Muslims (Malkiel, 2007) . This event was the initial beginning of the Crusades. The Papal call was met positively and many people responded and this included both the military and non-military citizens, with citizens volunteering wearing a cross to symbolize the church. This was a stage set for the prevailing rulers that included the Knights Templar, the Hospitallers, and the Teutonic to give military orders.
The First Crusade
Occurred during the period of (1095-1099) where Pope Urban II helped Byzantine to regain their recently lost land to the Muslims who had committed sacrilege to Christians individuals and the artifacts (Malkiel, 2002). Reclaim Jerusalem was another agenda of the war. The first crusade reasons were successfully satisfied as the Byzantine Empire were able to reclaim the territory and this included Jerusalem (Shagrir & Amir, 2017). The newly gained region was split into states referred to the Latin States creating the Crusader states.
The Second Crusade
This began when a crusade state (Country of Edessa) in 1144 CE fell to the civilization of Zengi which was a Muslim civilization. This marked the beginning of the second crusade which St Bernard and Pope Eugenius III are given credit for; another motive was to prevent the region claimed by Christians from falling into heathens. Although there was the first event marked the first crusade, this was the first one to be led by the European rulers that are Conrad III from Germany and Louis VII. The success of the second crusade was marked with disagreements among its leaders and was characterized with unclear goals. because of the unclear goals and the exhibited disagreements among the leaders the crusade ended up attacking Damascus instead of the initial plan which was to retrieve County of Edessa from the Muslims. The second crusade was therefore won by the Muslims and there were more divisions among the Christians states and this is how the Christians lost Jerusalem.
The Third Crusade
Also known as the Kings' Crusade the Third Crusade occurred during the period of 1189-1192 and the main aim was to reclaim the Christians land of Jerusalem from the Muslims' military leader Saladin who is credited for unifying Muslim from Syria and those from Egypt. During this time, Salidin is observed to have conquered almost every crusader's city. He is also observed to have built a base near to the Christian Roman Empire (Shepkaru, 2014). When Pope Gregory VIII heard this news he asked for a new crusade to capture the holy land again. Three rulers responded to the call that is King Henry II from England, Fredrick Barbarossa, and King Phillip II. Both Henry III and Frederick Barbarossa died during this course. They succeeded in making Ramla reconciliation (1192) and Christian pilgrimages were granted safe passage to Jaffa through Tyre the Muslim land. Even though they captured the main cities and reversed Saladin's conquests, the effort failed to capture the mainland that was viewed to be holy that is Jerusalem.
The Fourth Crusade
Pope docket was involved in these crusades attacks and plans. For the fourth crusade, Pope Innocent III asked for it where his main aim was observed to regain Jerusalem and outset the Muslim rule. As it was the trend with the previous Crusades, this one also lost its track as it did not have a proper plan and failed in following the main goal which was to recapture Jerusalem. The campaign ended up taking the army to Constantinople where they occupied the region controlling the Byzantine empire. The above move is observed to have been brought about by the hidden political agendas. There is evidence of crusaders looting and raiding cities including those belonging to fellow Christians. The observed side missions happened even after Prohibition from the Pope and money made from these barbaric acts was used to repay a loan used for the fleets and support of the crusade. Many of those who went for the quest is also seen breaking their vows of respecting women at Constantinople as they assaulted them. The activist which included fighting and instability prevented the campaign from proceeding to Jerusalem.
The above events are important to history but the details do not give the reason why crusades influential to the people that experienced these events. Thus from the above analyses and outside resources, the following texts are going...