The First Crusade (1095-1099) had a successful outcome in which the crusaders gained entry to Jerusalem unlike the Second Crusade (1145-1149), where the crusaders didn’t get anywhere near the Holy Land. To an extent, I do believe the difference in the leadership of the two crusades did contribute to their different outcomes. However, I also believe that there were other factors which were more responsible for the outcome, such as the difference in motivation of both the leaders and the main crusading army. Both the crusades, had strong leaders and weak leaders, but it was their motivations that varied, and it was possibly this reason why their outcomes varied.
The leadership of The First Crusade was partly responsible for its success. From
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Firstly the People's Crusades in 1096 was a failure due to lack of discipline amongst the crusaders this resulted in giving Kerbogha an impression that the later crusading army in 1096 would be as disorganised and therefore as easily beaten. Hence, Kerbogha’s response to the main crusaders was more delayed and lacked a united army, which increased the success of the First Crusade. For example in March 1098, after Baldwin's success in Edessa, instead of continuing on to Antioch to stop the siege by the crusaders, Kerbogha attempted to recapture Edessa first. This showed that the crusaders weren't a big enough threat to make stopping their siege of Antioch a priority. Another factor responsible for the success of the First Crusade was the desires of wealth by the Princes. Due to many of the princes looking to establish their own power, this became a common aim between them which ultimately led to the success of the crusade as wealth became the motivation behind them working together. For example, the siege of Antioch was a success due to the competition between Bohemond and Raymond for its possession meant they needed a united front for the siege to succeed in the first place. Indulgence was also responsible for the success of the First Crusade, as in 1095; the first form of indulgence was developed by Pope Urban II. In this form of indulgence it meant that the crusaders had to succeed in crusading and reach Jerusalem in order for their sins to be cleared and gain access to heaven. For example six months after the capture of Antioch, Raymond and Bohemond was still fighting for possession of the city. However, the majority of the army had joined the crusade because of the indulgence idea wanted to get to Jerusalem and were tired of waiting. The fighting between the two princes was a huge stand still in the progress of the crusade.
Now, in 1198, in order to raise the papacy rather than take the Holy Land, Pope Innocent III, called for another crusade. This crusade is mostly being led by French Knights and instead attempting to capture Jerusalem, they end up sacking the Christian city of Constantinople! After the fourth Crusade, the other crusades were disorganized efforts that accomplished little to
The First Crusade was called in 1096 by Pope Urban II. The reasons for the First Crusade was to help obtain Jerusalem known as the holy land. During this time period the Muslims were occupying Jerusalem. First Crusade contained peasants and knights’ whose ethnicities consist of Franks, Latin’s, and Celts which were all from the western part of Europe. To get peasants and knights to join Pope Urban II objectives in return of a spiritual reward called “remission of all their sins” which was to be redeemed of any sins the individual has committed. When sins are redeemed Crusaders believed that they will escape the torment of hell. When lords and knights joined the crusade they were known as military elites. Crusaders were known as soldiers of Christ.
The First Crusade is often cited as one of the most damnable consequences of religious fanaticism. A careful inspection of the circumstances and outcomes, however, will reveal a resultant political restructuring of Europe under the banner of Christendom. The purpose of this investigation is to investigate Pope Urban II’s motives in initiating the First Crusade, with a particular focus on the consolidation of the Western Church’s influence in Europe. Among the primary sources that will be consulted are the letter sent by Patriach Alexios of Constantinople to Urban, and an account of Urban’s speech at Clermont. Relevant excerpts from both of these primary sources, as well as contextual evidence and a wide array of historiography, will be taken
The Crusades took place in the Middle East between 1095 and 1291. They were used to gain a leg up on trading, have more land to show hegemony, and to please the gods. Based upon the documents, the Crusades between 1095 and 1291 were caused primarily by religious devotion rather than by the desire for economic and political gain.
The first crusade was held only in order to fulfill desire of the Christians of the recapturing the center of the Christian faith-Jerusalem, which has been controlled by the Muslim nation for more than 400 years. This military campaign was followed with severe cruelty and harsh actions against Muslims which cannot be justified with anything but religious and material interest.
That is relevant because the fourth crusade, one of their goals were to reunite the Greek Latin churches but it only made it worse and made them split up and got assaulted. That is a major reason on how the crusades had its negative outcomes than positive outcomes.Those are some reasons on why the crusades were mostly poor results than good results.There are many different reasons why there were lots more negative outcomes than positive results for instance lots of people would lose their lives and their homes and communities would be destroyed.
Both the Crusaders and the Muslims wanted power. In contradiction the church wanted to reunite Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire with the Roman Catholic Empire giving the Church extra power. Baldwin of Boulogne is a key example in portraying the Crusader’s quest for power; splitting off from the rest of the army and traveling east until he reached Armenian where he would establish himself as ruler. Like Boulogne, Bohemond of Taranto also abandoned the majority to better his own personal status—he took over as Prince of Antioch. Through these two prominent figures we see that power was a necessity to the leaders of this era; and unfortunately the people look up to their leaders and do likewise. However, if these Crusaders were fighting for “religious factors” then they would recognize that God holds the ultimate power and they are nothing without him. But these power hungry individuals obviously lacked humility...
The First Crusade was a result of several reasons-politics, territory, knowledge, etc. It was even said to have begun simply to distract western Europe from fighting amongst themselves. However, the First Crusades was a totally unexpected campaign stirred mostly by religious fervor. People of multiple ethnicities randomly banded together and decided to quit their lives to fight a war from which many were fully aware they might not have returned from, because of their religious devotion.
In 1095, Pope Urban II called the first crusade. Happening between 1096 and 1099, the first crusade was both a military expedition and a mass movement of people with the simple goal of reclaiming the Holy Lands taken by the Muslims in their conquests of the Levant. The crusade ended with the capture of Jerusalem in July 1099. However, there has been much debate about whether the First Crusade can be considered an ‘armed pilgrimage’ or whether it has to be considered as a holy war. This view is complicated due to the ways in which the Crusade was presented and how the penitential nature of it changed throughout the course of the Crusade.
A major turning point in Medieval history were the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of wars fought between the Christian Europeans and the Muslim Turks, which occurred between the years of 1096 to 1272. In this Holy War the Christians goal was to obtain the Holy Land from the Turks, in which they did not succeed. Although the Christians did not meet their goal, many positives did come out of their attempt. Due to the reason that they did not meet their goal, yet numerous positives came out of their effort, many refer to this as a successful failure.
At the end of the 11th century, Western Europe had emerged as a great power, not yet as strong as the Byzantine Empire or the Islamic Empire of the Middle East and North Africa, however, it had substantial growth in political and religious influence during the Middle Ages. At this time the Byzantine Empire was under constant attack from the Seljuk Turks and many losses had lead to a significant decrease in the Byzantine territories. After the wars with the Turks, years of civil war and chaos followed until Alexius Comnenus, a general in the Byzantine army seized the throne in 1081 and took control of what was left of the Byzantine Empire.
Spanning from 1095 to 1212 C.E, the Crusades were an effort made by medieval Christians to regain their holy lands back from the Muslims. There were five crusades in total going in order from the First Crusade to the Children's Crusade. A few were effective in their own respects although these Crusades proved costly to the European Kingdoms as a result of large losses of life. This paper will explore these crusades and explain why some succeeded whereas others failed.
The First Crusade from 1095 to 1099 has been seen as a successful crusade. The First Crusaders carefully planned out their attacks to help promote religion throughout the lands. As the First Crusade set the example of what a successful crusade should do, the following crusades failed to maintain control of the Holy Land. Crusades following after the First Crusade weren’t as fortunate with maintaining the Holy Land due united forces of Muslims, lack of organization, and lack of religious focus.
In 1095 Pope urban II call all Christians to take part in what would become the world’s greatest Holy War in all of history. Urban’s called Christians to take up arms and help fight to take the Holy Land of Jerusalem back from the accursed Muslims. During this time of war the whole world changed. Land boundaries shifted, men gained and lost and gained power again, and bonds were forged and broken. The Crusades had a great impact on the world that will last forever. There were many major social, political, religious and economic changes that occurred during the crusades. But first, a brief history to give backbone to these reasons.
The Second Crusade was undeniably a failure due to division of leadership and troops, bad military commanding, and poor communication. Not only was this the beginning of the fall of the Christian Crusades, "the crusader states would have been fared better have the crusade never been launched" (Madden 59). The loss was tremendous, and although this crusade brought no progress for the Christians, it was none-the-less significant. The failure of the Second Crusade “was the strongest evidence yet that the Franks could lose, and lose big" and significantly strengthened the Muslim army (Madden 58). It was the beginning of the Muslims' rise to power and the Christians' fall from it.