HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THE CRUSADES?WAS IT GOOD OR BAD?

    I will predominantly be focused on the lead up to the Crusades and not necessarily go past what happens afterwards. With that the First Crusade (1096-1099) was a necessary War by the European powers to defend themselves from the growing threat and expansion of the Turkish Muslim powers.

Setting the Stage

    As I set the stage, the map to the left shows that Christianity was spread throughout Western Europe, parts of Eastern Europe, parts of Africa, and the Middle East. You can take from this that you also found Christianity wherever the Roman Empire was spread in its borders. After Christendom, they split up between the Catholic Church in the Western Roman Empire of the former Western Roman Empire and Orthodox Christianity or Greek Christianity found in the Eastern Roman Empire, which eventually became the Byzantine Empire. We also see on the right-hand map how exactly this coincides with the map on the left and the boundaries of the Roman Empire conjecture to how far Christianity had spread in the context of its borders. You can see it went all the way from Britain into parts of Armenia, highlighting the importance of how the Middle East had a stronghold for Christians because a lot of the Old and New Testament happens in those regions. An example is, Exodus and Moses's story, where he helped the Jews escape slavery in Egypt. Christ and the holy saints were found within Jerusalem, critical sites for these religions and believers.

    What we find here in these two maps, which is important to keep in context, is that the Muslim empires are encroaching further westward after the death of Muhammad. You'll also find that Anatolia, which is also Asian Minor, has been fought over by the Byzantines and effectively taken over by the Muslim caliphates and the Seljuk Turks, which are extremely important for the Byzantines as it is a means to conduct trade in the Mediterranean. Then you find the conquests of the 630s to the 820s, as shown on the right map, showing how they've expanded from the East into the former Western Christian kingdoms encroaching as far as the boot section of Italy and Spain. They also took over the holy lands and moved into parts of northern Africa, threatening the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. The map on the left also shows where those battles were fought between the 7th and 11th centuries and Naval engagements. 

    Continuing setting the stage the Islamic golden age was considered from 790 to 1258 while the consensus of the Dark Ages or the Middle Ages of Europe was around 500 to 1500 AD. Its important to note that while the Muslim/Islamic world had progressed into this Golden Age there was the Dark Age of Europe. Due to the Muslim/Islamic rule, you found that Arabs control the Mediterranean taking slaves along the European coastal cities and restricting trade access along Mediterranean Sea. This basically cut them off from the rest of the world and put them in an economic bind which was the point. The large reason for this was after Muhammad's death in 632, there were many calls for Jihad to take the West into unifying the Middle Eastern Muslim powers and find a common enemy. This effectively launched their own version of a holy war against the Western Christian kingdoms starting off with their closest major power, the Byzantine Empire. What eventually comes to pass is when they finally do take Jerusalem and the holy land, they bard Christians from visiting their holy sites and imposed taxes among them. This later plays a role into how the Pope responds to this threat. 
  Here we can see how the Byzantine Empire was eventually facing pressure from the Seljuk and how they continuously lost land moving forward from 1,000 AD. 

    Once the Seljuk Turks took Anatolia from the Byzantine Empire, it was strategically important as it allowed them access to the Eastern Silk Road trade market. Once the Seljuks could move Westward, they could hold Europe in a vise grip, disrupting trade, economic prosperity, and access to the outside world, creating an echo chamber for them. Once Anatolia was taken from the Byzantine Empire, Alexius feared the conquest wouldn't stop. They had been constantly fighting over that territory for a long time, losing several major battles, so their borders kept shrinking. What Alexius did was send a letter to the Count of the Robert of Flanders where he outlined the atrocities against Christians, which included sodomizing Bishops and abducting women, playing into the hearts and strengths of the slave trade that the Arabs were doing at the time. Here, Alexius says, “Therefore, before Constantinople is captured by them, you most certainly ought to fight with all your strength so that you may joyfully receive in heaven a glorious and ineffable reward. For it is better that you should have Constantinople than the pagans because in that [city] precious relics of Lord, to wit: the pillar to which he was bound; the lash with which He was scourged; the scarlet robe in which he was arrayed; the crown thorns with which He was crowned....”﻿
    As you can see, Alexius is making a plea saying all of the relics that are extremely holy to Christians, specifically artifacts during the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as well as the resurrection, are giving the West more reason to intervene. Remember, Christianity was split up into two parts: the Western Roman Empire, ruled by the Pope, and the Eastern Roman Empire, ruled by the Orthodoxy and did not answer to the Pope. However, they both shared the commonality of being a Christian and following the faith of Jesus Christ and the central tenets of the Old and New Testaments. Again, Alexius is trying to make that plea and a concerted effort to make sure that he is heard.

    On November 27th, 1095, Pope Urban II rallied Christian Europe to align themselves against the Muslims. At this point it's a full out Holy war between Muslims and Christians. In his speech to Rally the Nations he sends out a call to war making sure that they stop their fighting amongst themselves and to take up arms against a common threat.
    He says “For, as most of you have heard, the Turks and arrows have attacked them and conquered the territory of Romania, as far West as the shore of the Mediterranean, and the Hellespont. They have occupied more and more lands of those Christians and have overcome them in seven battles…”. This is referring to Alexis's inability to defend his lands.
    The Pope goes on to say “On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s Heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that Vile race from the lands of our friends.” ﻿
   The Pope said that the poor and Rich could fight side by side. I wasn't necessarily too sure about adding this point because of how accurate the outcomes were, but peasants at this time and Lords of wealthier status could fight side by side. This wasn't a war where the rich stayed home, and the peasants were conscripted and levied from Farms. This is something where everyone had a concerted effort. This was the first time you’ve seen hundreds of thousands of men leaving for a commonality, whether the undertones be wrong for their gain.
   In today's context, we need to recognize that there needs to be an understanding of what the attitudes were at the time and how we cannot apply the 21st-century standard of egalitarianism in the context of how people thought back then. This was a necessary war that the West could wage against the East because so much of their land was taken and overrun in the western part of Europe via Spain, as well as starting to see a foothold being established in the footsteps of Italy. There needed to be a concerted effort to ensure an adequate response to an increasing threat from the East. The Pope now has a way to rally European powers against a common threat.

The Promise of the Crusade

    What could have been gained from this? Europeans were influenced to support each other and unite under religion. The Pope had also promised that sins would be absolved for whoever participated in the Crusade because, according to the Catholic Doctrine, the Pope represents the Trinity on Earth, which grants him those powers.
  In addition, there were also secular motives, meaning that they were separate from the overall religious overtones set throughout the Crusades, which was to explore the world. Most people at this time, unless they were well above their means and wealthy, could now travel. But during this feudalist society, people were relegated to the areas where they were born and worked under the manner of some Lord or King. This offered them the opportunity to move on from this sort of Lifestyle. 
   People also believed they could achieve fame and fortune in new lands, much like the eventual colonization of the New World. They saw new lands as an opportunity to break away and establish themselves in a new aristocracy. 
   

The Modern Opinions of Kingdom of Heaven

   The Kingdom of Heaven was a film released in the early 2000s about defending Jerusalem. This was not the First Crusade, but throughout this film, many people took the ideas of the First Crusade in general and turned them into their own 20th and 21st-century messages of expansion and religious bigotry. What you find throughout the film, before the Christian response in 1096, was the fact that the Turks were consistently moving Westward and committing atrocities throughout Europe. The boiling point was reached, and the catalyst was the letter from Alexius to Robert Flanders saying that this needed to be taken care of and resolved. There are historical inaccuracies, but the overall message was the Christian kingdoms were consistently looking for reasons to fight and shed blood amongst the innocent in the name of God, even though it's contrary to the actual message of Christianity. 
 

There could be outliers as we know within everything, making distinctions between what a holy text says versus the actuality of how people carry out that message within their own interpretation.
 

   Within the Bible, there is no call for that sort of conquest, for it is said that the kingdom of God is not on this earth but in heaven. But within the Quran, you are to launch conquest to lie and to do whatever is necessary to rid the infidels who have not believed in Islam. Templar knights made famous by the Crusades and depicted with the Red Cross were falsely represented. In this movie, they show a very different side of what Templars were, but in reality, they were people trying to help their citizens to achieve pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
    Because the media has such a broad grasp of shaping people's opinions towards what the Crusades were in the beginning, I argue that it is a defense of Europe and Christendom within the Byzantine Empire. I find it essential to highlight people's misconceptions if they solely rely on media, such as movies and television shows, that don't have factual historical bases but are historically themed, and how they can influence anyone to believe just about anything. 