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The Crusades The Crusades were military expeditions planned and carried out by western European Christians. The crusades started around 1095. The purpose of these crusades was to overtake and gain control of the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Holy Land was Jerusalem and the Christians believed that gaining control of it was their fate. The pope would gather the people together and incite them. The origin of the crusades was a result of the expanding Turks in the middle east. These Turkish forces invaded Byzantium, a Christian empire. The crusaders were a militia, sent out to recover what they thought was theirs. The first crusades were essentially started by Pope Urban II. On November 27, 1095, he gathered his followers outside the French city of Clermont-Ferrand. He preached to these people and told them that action needed to be taken. In response, the people cheered and planned their attack. Urban II brought together all of the bishops and urged them to talk to their friends and fellow villagers and to encourage them to participate in the crusades. Small groups started to form and each group would be self- directing. All the groups planned their own ways to the Constantinople, where they would meet and regroup. They would attack the Turkish forces in Constantinople and hope to regain control of the city. The large Christian armies talked to Alexius I Comnenus, the Byzantium emperor, and agreed to return any of his old land that was recaptured. The armies were skeptical of this demand but agreed anyway. The first attack by the crusaders was on Anatolian, the Turkish capital. Meanwhile the Byzantians were also trying to recapture Anatolian, and later that year, the city surrendered to the Byzantians instead of the crusaders. The Byzantians were using the crusaders as pawns to achieve their own goals. The crusaders again met and crushed the Turkish army. The crusaders scored a great victory and boosted the troops' moral. The crusaders captured Antioch and also held off relief forces sent to help the Turks. The crusaders then moved on to their main goal-Jerusalem. The city was under Egyptian control and was heavily guarded. The crusaders set up siege machines and called for reinforcements, finally forcing the Egyptians to surrender. Everyone in the city was massacred in the belief that the blood of the former holders purified it. The crusaders kept control of the city for the next generation or so and brought in people to inhabit the Holy Land. Slowly the Muslim forces started to rebuild and soon came back to take the Holy Land. After the defeat of the Egyptians in Jerusalem, the crusaders started to colonize. The Latin colonists set up four states: Tripoli, which was on the Syrian coast, Antioch, centered near the Orontes Valley, Edessa, a far east state which held most of the Christians, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, the most powerful and centered between the other three states. The crusaders' strategy during the first crusade was to isolate the Muslims and Egyptians, and to cut off any supplies or reinforcements from ...
Henry V - Film Essay submitted by ethan The film uses various techniques to present a particular view of the war against France. What is that interpretation and how does the film convey it? Although the Branagh version of Shakespeare's Henry V remains very close to the text, with only a few lines left out of the film, the movie portrays a very...
HENRIETTA MUIR EDWARDS Born in Montreal on December 18, 1849, Henrietta Muir Edwards was one of Alberta's "Famous Five Women". She began her fight for woman's rights at her home in Montreal with her sister. Here she founded the Working Girls' Club, which offered meals, reading rooms and study classes, in 1875. Henriett...
. Roosevelt On January 30, 1882 in Hyde Park, New York elano Roosevelt was born. James Roosevelt, Franklin\'s father, was a prosperous railroad official and landowner(Lawson 25). His predecessors, when they came from the Netherlands, were succes Roosevelt learned from private tutors, not going to school until the age of fourteen. He had already...
St. In French Jeanne d?Arc; by her contemporaries commonly known as la Pucelle (the Maid). Born at Domremy in Champagne, probably on 6 January, 1412; died at Rouen, 30 May, 1431. The village of Domremy lay upon the confines of territory which recognized the suzerainty of the Duke of Burgundy, but in the protracted conflict between...
How did Rome, the great empire, the mighty, untouchable civilization, fall? The cause of Rome's decline may be found in many areas. The events that lead to the fall of the Roman Empire will be discussed in this paper. Rome, as an empire accomplished tremendous feats. There are as many reasons that lead to its fall. Rome's army, towards the tim...
