WHAT WERE THE CRUSADES?
The Crusades were holy wars fought between
Christians in Europe and Muslims in the Middle
East between 1095 and 1291.
The main goal of the Crusades was to take
control of Jerusalem and other pieces of land
which the Christians deemed holy all of which
the Muslims had since claimed.
WHY WERE THE EUROPEANS WILLING TO
FIGHT?
Christians would typically make pilgrimages to the Holy land but in the 11th
century the Muslim ruler interfered with their pilgrimages.
Plus on top of this The Terks in 1071 fought the Byzantine Empire at the
Battle of Manzikert and won.
The Byzantines were Christian so this sent shockwaves travelling all
throughout Europe.
WHAT WERE THE PROS OF THE CRUSADES?
The crusaders discovered new education from
the Eastern Empires which was of course
always something being sought after.
Trade increased throughout the whole world
which in turn increased the wealth of the world.
New arts and literature was discovered and
new technologies developed from the newly
found education of the eastern settlements.
WHAT WERE THE CONS OF THE CRUSADES?
Out of the 7 major crusades and 2 minor crusades only 2 of them were successful.
After all the Muslims still kept the Holy Land
There was a spread of the black death which ended up killing around 25 million people in Europe.
The main goals of the crusades were never met so in terms of the main point of the crusades it was a complete waste of time.
OVERVIEW
Though the crusades may have meant to be for a good cause it turned into
something more like a brutal slaughter of innocents in the middle east.
The thought that out of over a hundred years of war all but nothing that was
initially intended pulled through is ridiculous.
Although there was some good that came out of the Crusades I feel that the
bad outweighs the good by far.
Leaving me to believe that there might have been far better ways to have
faced the problems the Christians were having in the Middle East.
CITES
http://therightscoop.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/crusades_large.jpg
http://religionwiki.mvcsnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Crusades-Map.png.gif
http://europenews.dk/files/What-About-The-Crusades.png
http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm
http://crusades101.weebly.com/pros-and-cons.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crus/hd_crus.htm