THE CRUSADES

By: Adam Geltz

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