Religious And Cultural Scales: The Crusades

The Crusades intertwine various aspects of history – from war, politics, economics, and diversity on both religious and cultural scales. They are regarded as having lasted from the late eleventh to seventeenth centuries; even since then, they’ve gone on to cast a long shadow over the rest of history. They are uniquely characterized by the key involvement of the church and papacy in the waging of the warfare itself – that which would shift the fight against Muslim expansion into an all-out war for the claiming of Holy Lands. Individual rulers and people fighting for their lands were forced to accept a higher calling – one fought in lands made sacred by Jesus Christ himself. The Crusades really first came to pass when Pope Urban II made the push to claim Holy Lands in the East – which were, at the time, under Muslim occupation. The

With a victory foretold for Richard in the East by the Calabrian abbot, Joachim of Fiore, further Christian forces came to the aid of the Germans, and Richard led the English to victory. In spite of all this, however, not much was achieved in the grand scheme of things; the Israeli city of Acre was won, Crusade States remained held, but Jerusalem was still lost. The Fourth Crusade was also regarded as an utter disaster; with the Crusaders sacking the Christian city of Constantinople in 1204, rather than going forward to fight off the Muslims in their Holy Land. The Fifth Crusade saw Egypt come under attack and Crusaders managing to take the port of Damietta – only for it to be retaken by the Arabs in due time. The Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Crusades were later waged from about 1248 to 1270 by King Louis IX of France, while the Ninth Crusades was mounted by the English Prince Edward I in the year