The Crusades

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns of a religious character that was waged against Muslims. The onset of the Crusades began just before the end of the eleventh century, where the Byzantine emperor Alexius I urgently called for some support from other Christian states in Europe to protect his empire against the invading Seljuk Turks. The Christians aim was to recapture Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims. Jerusalem was also extremely important for the Muslims as Muhammad, the founder of the Muslim faith, had been there and there was great joy in the Muslim world when Jerusalem was captured. However, while the Crusades began as a move to conquer the Muslims, they became a battle within the Christian faith itself. Many of the Europeans lost their values and religious beliefs and thus the Crusades became a time of re-identifying their faith. To the Muslims and the non-Muslims of the east, the Crusades were a war of a barbarous nature that needed to be repelled. It was a war against their faith and their customs. Nevertheless, the decline of the Arab civilization soon after coming out victorious in the Crusades suggests that there were deeper issues in the conflict between the west and east. One might say that the crusades took place because of the rivalry as well as the clash of cultures between the Christians and the Muslims.

Doubts were raised among Christians about God's will, the church's authority, and the role of the papacy. The religious commitment halted to disinterest, and skepticism. On the other hand, the Crusades did stimulate religious enthusiasm on a broad scale. The Crusades continued many years after Pope Urban originally lead them to Constantinople. The Mediterranean had an addiction to warfare. The Crusades helped some religions but they had to destroy and oppress others so many question if what they were doing was or did further an advancement in their religion.

The achievements of the religious wars fell far behind expectations; but the idea became firmly fixed that the pope at the head of armed Christendom had effected the conquest of the Holy Sepulcher. It was he who gave the call to arms, who supplied the necessary means from the treasures of the Church, who showered on the warriors of the cross privileges and benedictions, and who led them on through his legates; and though the actual work of battle fell to the secular princes, the latter