Crusades

9 Pages 2198 Words

nd their religious power beyond its original borders. They did this by forcing religion upon certain groups such as: heretics, pagans, and most all non-Christians. When Pope Urban seen the action of the Muslims he then thought it was his duty to Christianize those people. These facts combined started the First crusade in 1095 (3). At a personal level however, crusading could be undertaken for many different reasons. Many European cities were becoming over crowded, meaning many people would join crusades in search of new land. Knights would go in the hope of acquiring power and control over this new land. The chance at commercial success in new places was a huge determining factor for the western merchants of the day. Adventure, money, land, and religion were all big reasons for participating in the Crusades of the Middle Ages (4).
The first Crusade began on November 27th 1095, as a response to the attack on the Byzantine Empire by the Muslims. Pope Urban II inspired many clergy and laypeople to join the crusading force. There was much excitement for the new adventure that awaited the people of Europe. They united at the Byzantine capital of Constantinople and launched a counter attack against the Seljuk conquerors of Anatolia. They then fought and overtook many city-states belonging to the Byzantine Empire with final destination Jerusalem, in their sights (5). The Majority of people who joined the crusades were from France, with others coming from Lorraine, Burgundy, Flanders, and Italy. Many common people were interested in crusading as well as noble individuals. The reason for this was the chance of finding and claiming any land once they had overtaken parts of the Middle East (6). The crusaders enjoyed considerable success during their first couple of years. In only their first month of crusading the...