The Crusades

The Crusades

The history channel gave an excellent presentation on the story of the Crusade with information true to the story. The story of the first, second and third Crusade's was portrayed in a manner that the viewer could see what happened during this era. The history channel's portrayal was also very true to the story learned in textbooks leaving nothing out. Every fact in the movie was told by historians and scholars of both Arab and European descent, which also gave you a vibe of the feelings of each side. As I will discuss in this essay the first, second and third crusades and how each of these facts was told in the portrayal that the history channel showed us.

The First Crusade began in 1095 by authority of Pope Urban II to regain control of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Christian Holy Land from Muslims. What started as a small incident grew quickly into a widespread migration to conquer the territory outside Europe. Both knights and peasants from many different nations of Western Europe, with little leadership, traveled towards Jerusalem to captured the city in July 1099, establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other Crusader states. Although these gains lasted for fewer than two hundred years, the Crusade was a major turning point in the expansion of Western power, and was the only crusade in contrast to the many that followed to achieve its stated goal. The origins of the Crusades especially of the First Crusade in particular, stem from events in the Middle Ages. The breakdown of the Caroligian Empire in previous centuries, combined with the stability of European borders after the Christianization of the Vikings and Magyars, gave rise to an entire class of warriors who now had very little to do but fight among themselves and terrorize the peasant population.

The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe, called in 1145 in response to the fall of the of Edessa the previous year. Edessa was the first of the Crusader states to have been founded during the First Crusade, and was the first to fall. The Second Crusade was announced by Pope Eugenius III, and was the first of the crusades to be led by European kings, namely Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, with help from a number of other important European nobles. The armies of the two kings marched separately across Europe , after crossing Byzantine territory into Anatolia, both armies were defeated sepratley by the Seljuk Turks. Louis and Conrad brought their armies into Jerusalem in 1148 where they participated in an attack on Damascus. The crusade in the east was a failure for the crusaders and a great victory for the Muslims. It would ultimately lead to the fall of Jerusalem and the Third Crusade at the end of the 12th century. The only success came outside of the Mediterranean, where English crusaders, on the way to the Holy Land, stopped and helped capture Lisbon. Meanwhile, in Eastern Europe, the first of the Northern Crusades to forcefully convert pagan tribes to Christianity began,