Analysis Of God's Battalions By Rodney Stark

When it comes to the topic of Crusades in Rodney Stark’s book, God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, it is important to understand the historical thinking Stark undergoes to compose a thesis for his book. Stark’s historical thinking is comprised of multiple shadowing factors of distress during the Crusades, alongside his perceptions as a historical text interpreter and author. The text of God’s Battalions: The Case for the Crusades is centered around Stark’s person beliefs that the Crusades was centered around the Muslim terror and aggression (Stark, 8). It is important to understand Stark’s descriptions and belief of why the Crusades started. Rodney Stark composes a personal and historical thesis about the the Crusades with a centralized

Stark compares European colonialism across the world and the Islamic fury due to Crusades as a motivation for the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center by Muslim terrorists (Tristano). European colonialism can be found in both the times of the Crusades and today. During the time of the Crusades, many of the Crusaders set out to spread Christianity; therefore, leading to the spread of Christianity. During the time of the Crusades, “the crusaders marched east not out of idealism, but in pursuit of lands and loots; that the Crusades were promoted by the power-mad popes seeking to greatly expand Christianity though conversion of Muslim masses” (Stark, 4). Whereas the United States is primarily Christian county (because of European colonialism), the Middle East is still primarily Muslim, leading to the next points of pursuit of land, loot, and power, as well as, and crime in need of atonement (Tristano). These points can be seen in the recent historical attack on 9/11. Stark quotes, “It was argued that Muslim bitterness over the mistreatment by the Christian West can be dated back to the First Crusade” (Stark, 4). This shows the audience Stark’s idealism behind not only the start of the Crusades, but also the aftermath that has been left behind hundreds of years later, connecting back to the idea of Muslims to “moving east for lands, loot” and seeking revenge on the traditional explanations on the beginning of

In many way the definition relates back to the Crusades. The Crusades are a series of holy wars that involved two multi-ethnic groups (Christians and Muslims) that fought for political domination of core periphery for their own religion. The Crusades exhibited a rigorous cultural presence, which is very important when it comes to creating a successful empire. During the Crusades, Christians had the capability of persuading people to convery and accept to the new idea of their religion, Christianity (Tristano). In return to the peoples conversions, they gained allegiance and loyalty from their conveersoners, but grew further apart from their Muslim opponent (Tristano). Not only did the Crusades exhibit a strong cultural presence, it also exhibited sufficient military strength. The two parties fighting in the Crusades fought for religion, but couldn’t do it without the ability to conquer and maintain control of their army. Although both sides had pretty sufficient army's, the duration of the holy wars were long lasting and left a historical impact of modern day history, which adds to the list of attributes necessary to create an empire (Checklist). Finally, the Crusades indirect need for viable economy impacts the determination considering the Crusades an empire.