1st Crusade

The Crusades are not understood well. Many people go by the idea the world tells, that the European Christians attacked the defenseless Muslims. This however is extremely wrong. The very first crusade was directed to save the city of Jerusalem, which had been captured by the Muslims. It was called upon by the Emperor Alexus I of Constantinople on November 27, 1095 and supported by Pope Urban II. The Crusades are not often described as a win, lose situation; so depending on that for a resultant is not good. In order to define the result you have to look at the effects and military stance as a result. (source)(source) (source,Google Books) (source, Google Books)

“The massacre of 3000 Christian Pilgrims in Jerusalem prompted the first crusade” (source) This disproves the idea that people have saying that the Europeans have no right in going to fight against the Muslims. Through this quote it is seen that the Muslims took their expansions too far by killing cold bloodedly. The Muslims had taken over the city and were converting many Christians and Jews to their religion. Those that did not convert then lived in very hard conditions and were forced to pay numerous taxes to the Muslims. (source) (source,Google Books)

People in the first crusade were very important in the result of the first Crusade. “Emperor Alexus I of Constantinople in launching the first crusade. He made one of the most influential speeches in the Middle Ages, calling on Christian princes in Europe to go on a crusade to rescue the Holy Land from the Turks.” (source) Many important people were involved in the Crusades such as: “Count Raymond of Toulouse headed a band of volunteers from Provence in southern France. Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin commanded a force of French and Germans from the Rhinelands. Normandy sent Robert, William the Conqueror's eldest son. The Normans from Italy and Sicily were led by Bohemond, a son of Robert Guiscard, and his nephew Tancred.” (source)Many normal people also involved themselves in the crusade because they were told fighting in this would grant them eternal glory in the eyes of God. (source)

“The first assault made by the Christians upon the walls of the city was repulsed; but the second was successful, and the city was in the hands of the crusaders by July 1099. Godfrey of Bouillon and Tancred were among the first to mount the ramparts. Once inside the city, the crusaders massacred their enemies without mercy. A terrible slaughter of the infidels took place. For seven days the carnage went on, at the end of which time scarcely any of the Moslem faith were left alive.“(source) The Christians succeeded eventually and while they had the right to kill the Muslims because they had first killed. However, despite the justification the Christians should probably not have acted the way they did once inside the city. This crusade has a lot of connection to the way we have acted in the war on Iraq. (source)

“The First Crusade was the most successful from a military point of view.” (source, Google Books) The Crusaders succeeded in taking back the city therefore making it successful. “In this Crusade united Feudalism and Papacy won their greatest triumph.” (source, Google Books) One of the reasons why this Crusade was one of the strongest is because Europe was more so united in fighting and were not as caught up in fighting each other. (source)

This Crusade was very successful, a factor of this was because of the importance of this presented by the leaders of the European society. The leaders became more upset with the Muslims and their military expansions; they felt that the Muslims were very forceful in their actions. The intentions were correct, however not all the actions were good once inside the city of Jerusalem. The Crusade was pretty effective in stalling the Muslim expansions. (source, Google Books)(source, Google Books)(source)(source)(source)