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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 ...
The Spanish-American War During the last years of the nineteenth century, the United States would find itself involved in what John Jay, the American secretary of state, later referred to as a \"splendid little war; begun with highest motives, carried on with magnificent intelligence and spirit, favored by that fortune which loves the brave.\" F...
Did you ever stop and wonder how much we take the place we live for granted? If you were to take the time, you would discover how diverse are ?s history, geography, climate, economy, cultures and government. Did you know it is the largest country in the world now that U.S.S.R broke up. Specifically, is 9,922,330 square km....
The twenties and the thirties were very unusual time periods in American History. In some ways they are alike, but in most ways they are very different. The twenties were a time of fun and partying. This is probably the reason it is called the Roaring Twenties. All of the thirties were known as The Great Depression. It was probably c...
Great Powers in the 17th and 18th Centuries In the 17th and 18th centuries, Great Britain, France, and the Hapsburg Empire were all competing for the fate of Europe. France, in particular, was caught between being a continental power or a world power; taking control of the Rhine and most of Central Europe, or taking control of The New World...
Amidst the chaos of political instability and constant warring of the Zhou era, arose many intellectual thinkers that brought such profound impact in the field of politics, religion and philosophy. Even to the day, their influence can be espied in the many matters of China. Confucianism became the paramount school of thinking and later significan...
_Photography is a technological invention that has become the most universal means of communication and artistic expression that the world has known. It overcomes the differences of language. It can be specific and realistic, where music and related media can only be abstracted or general. In the form of motion pictures it can be used for t...
Christopher Columbus, considered one of the greatest explorers of all time. Like every other explorer, Columbus had many reasons for his exploration. However, it is made obvious by studying the history of Columbus' explorations that his main motive for exploration was greed. Columbus had the same desires as many explorers both bef...
? Thesis Does history repeat itself because people become power hungry? In the years from 58 B.C. to 1821 A.D., two infamous generals led armies to great success, yet met with similar fates. It is my belief that through the use of similar tactics, one general fell victim to a fate shared by another, earlier general. Could this fate have been avoide...
Two years of planning and preparation led up to the Allied Landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944 (pg. 3). British and American staffs had to work out every foreseeable detail for an undertaking that would involve the major military resources of the two Allied powers; immense stocks of shipping, aircraft, and supplies were assembled in the British Is...
Juan Gin's de Sepulveda, Bartolom' de las Casas, and Francisco de Vitoria arguments pertaining to the settlement and colonization of the native people of America, while presented in different manors, are all the same. All three Spaniards believed that the barbarians had to accept the rule of the Spanish because the Spanish were mentally s...
The following report will attempt to provide a brief, yet concise policy profile of Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar. Beginning with a short biographical review, the profile will proceed and concentrate on Senator Lugar?s major areas of public policy concern; Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, and in part, his 1996 Presidential...
Greece The Greek peninsula has been culturally linked with the Aegean Islands, and the west coast of Asia Minor since the Neolithic Age. The numerous natural harbors and close-lying islands lead to a unified, maritime civilization. However cultural unity did not produce political unity. Mountain ranges and deep valleys separated the peninsula int...
German Immigration: A story told by the ghosts of the past \"The day I left home, my mother came with me to the railroad station.When we said goodbye, she said it was just like seeing me go into my casket, I never saw her again.\" So is the story of Julia B. from Germany and many others who left their life and love for a chance of happiness...
Declaration for War in 1917 Welcome fellow Senators. We are here today to discuss what the United States should do following Germany's announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare and the sinking of the three American merchant ships. A resolution is put forth in front of the senators. The first section of the resolution says that: The U...
