Sam+Yoshikawa

1. Introduction--Describe a general cause or causes of the conflict.
You could ask many people what they remember about Christians the most through out history. Most would say the crusades. Why say that? It was the opposite of there beliefs but wasn’t that the same with the Muslims who also fought? This may all seem confusing at the moment, good turning bad, bad turning good. All for just a piece of land? Well this wasn’t just any land it was the “Holy Land”. The land promised to Jews and that everyone wanted. Read on to fully understand most of the crusades.

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2. Background--Describe who, what when and where.
There were many people involved in the crusades. I’d say a main one was the pope. He called for the crusade after all, if it weren’t for him maybe the crusades wouldn’t of happened. Also some major groups were the Muslims, Jews, Christians, Persians and Mongols. There are many speculations of why the pope decided to call the crusades after his little meeting at Clermont. Perhaps it was because he wanted to try to fix that relationship between them and Constantinople, or maybe that he was afraid of the invading Turks. "The Muslim presence in the Holy Land began with the initial Arab conquest of Palestine in the 7th century."- Wikipedia Contributors But what happened, happened and the crusades began. The first one lasted from 1096-1099, the second 1146-1148, the third 1187-1192 and the fourth from 1202-1204. It totals up to 11 years of war and around 1-3 millions deaths this does not include the Mongol and Persian invasion. The crusades happened everywhere from Dover, England to Acre. But all crusades somehow went through Constantinople. Also a main place was the holy land or in my opinion land of conflict even today there are still fights going on. This was just a small taste of the crusades.

3. Causal Factors--Describe three factors that led to The Crusades.
One factor was the religious conviction. The famed “promised land” to the Jews that were told it flowed of milk and honey. Where Muhammad rode his Pegasus to see prior prophets for guidance and even go through all of heaven to meet Allah.It was where the Romans brutally put to death the Christians savior and God, Jesus. To all of them this land was special to each and everyone of them. They didn’t want to share so they fought although I would say that the Jews were more stuck in the middle. Another reason was the hermit, Peter the hermit. Hard top believe a peaceful hermit could make such a difference but he did. He went around everywhere a moving motivational speaker to rouse the souls of his fellow men and convince them to drive out these infidels and fight! You could say he was a Hitler styled speaker speaking loudly and forcefully. The last reason was the relationship between Constantinople and the Pope. The patriarch was horribly embarrassed by them and I think the pop saw the chance to build back that threatening force they once had. Then it would be 2 power houses and a power to dominate the resistance. These are all reasons for the crusades.

4. Most Important Factor--Explain how one factor was more important than the others.
The most important factor was the religious conviction. I mean look at it now Muslims are willing to blow themselves up in order to reach the highest level of heaven, why not then? The Christians were dedicated to the Jesus and they were more than willing to fight for that holy place. When the Romans ruled they were burned and killed because there leader, Jesus, posed a political threat. How could you not fight for your ancestors sacrifices and work? The Jews were promised that land by God. Hey if God makes a promise I think you’d work pretty hard to get that “promised land” that was described as the sweetest location on earth where they would be safe from dangers and them being the black sheep and being bullied all the time. If you can see the emotions and dedication I’m sure you’ll see why this is so important.

5. Impacts--Explain how one religious group and an individual within that group were impacted by The Crusades.
The religious group most affected was probably the Jews. They were just the punching bag. They were murdered mercilessly by the opposing religions. You see, some people weren’t in it for there religion or for the glory of god they were in it to be war heroes. These brutal people had no care on whether they killed a few more for the cause. Jews were not only killed by outsiders but they killed themselves. Sometimes to save their family rather than have them put into slavery or killed in a gruesome way they would kill them themselves in a clean, peaceful, fast death. Others were not so lucky they were hunted and captured like beasts and the worthy and strong were put in the army sometimes forced to kill there own kind. As always the Jews were stuck in the middle of a much bigger conflict that they had not a lot to do with. Never the less what was done is done and the past is the past but that doesn’t change that they were killed and tortured over and over.

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6. Conclusion--Explain how The Crusades could have been avoided.
These crusades could’ve been avoided if they did what they teach us in preschool. Get along, and sharing. If the patriarch just would’ve forgiven the pope the pope wouldn’t of had to call the crusades. Also if they had said “lets share the holy land” what would there have been to fight over? Another thing is if they could have accepted each other like we half do today then they could’ve built a force so strong it could’ve taken on the Persians and the Mongols. If we only used the simple rules and borderlines we use today all would be fine.

7. Works Cited--List your sources in MLA format.
Wikipedia contributors. "Crusades." //Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Mar. 2010. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.