Definition Crusades

The term «crusade» first referred to military expeditions undertaken by European Christians to the Holy Land in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The conflicts to which the term applies have been extended to other campaigns initiated, supported and sometimes directed by the Roman Catholic Church against pagans and heretics or for presumed religious purposes. [1] The Crusades differed from other Christian religious wars in that they were considered a penitential exercise, thus bringing forgiveness to the participants for all known sins. The use of the term can be misleading, especially with regard to the Early Crusades, and the definition remains the subject of debate among contemporary historians. [2] The causes of the decline of the Crusades and the failure of the Crusader states are complex. Historians have tried to explain this in terms of Muslim reunification and jihadist enthusiasm, but Thomas Asbridge, among others, thinks it`s too simple. Muslim unity was sporadic and the desire for jihad short-lived. The nature of the Crusades was not suitable for the conquest and defense of the Holy Land. The Crusaders were on a personal pilgrimage and usually returned when it was finished. Although the philosophy of the crusade changed over time, the crusades continued to be led by ephemeral armies led by independent-minded potentates, rather than centralized leadership. What the Crusader states needed were large standing armies. Religious zeal allowed for significant military efforts, but proved difficult to direct and control.

Succession conflicts and dynastic rivalries in Europe, crop failures and heretical outbursts helped allay Latin Europe`s concerns about Jerusalem. Although the fighting also took place on the fringes of the Islamic world, the long distances eventually made it insurmountable to carry out crusades and maintain communication. He allowed the Islamic world, under the charismatic leadership of Zengi, Nur al-Din, Saladin, the unscrupulous Baibars and others, to successfully use the logistical advantages of proximity. [184] Urban II equated the Crusades around Jerusalem with the ongoing Catholic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula and the Crusades were preached in 1114 and 1118, but it was Pope Callistus II who proposed double fronts in Spain and the Middle East in 1122. In the spring of 1147, Eugene authorized the extension of his mission in the Iberian Peninsula and assimilated these campaigns against the Moors to the rest of the Second Crusade. The successful siege of Lisbon from 1 July to 25 October 1147 was followed by the six-month siege of Tortosa, which ended in a defeat of the Moors on 30 December 1148. [188] In the north, some Germans were reluctant to fight in the Holy Land, while pagan Wends were a more immediate problem. The resulting Wendish Crusade of 1147 was partially successful, but could not convert the pagans to Christianity. [189] At the time of the Second Crusade, the three Spanish kingdoms were powerful enough to conquer Islamic territory – Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. In 1212, the Spanish won the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa with the support of foreign fighters who responded to the preaching of Innocent III.[190] Many of them deserted because of Spanish tolerance towards defeated Muslims, for whom the Reconquista was a war of domination rather than annihilation. [191] In contrast, the Roman rite was relentlessly imposed on Christians who lived under Muslim rule and were called Mozarabs and they were accepted into traditional Catholicism.

[186] Al-Andalus, Islamic Spain, was completely suppressed in 1492 when the Emirate of Granada capitulated. [192] Proclaimed crusade in 1123, the struggle between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula eventually became better known in European historiography as the Reconquista and did not end until 1492 with the fall of the Muslim emirate of Granada. From 1147, the campaigns in Northern Europe against pagan tribes were considered crusades. In 1199, Pope Innocent III began proclaiming crusades against Christian heretics. Im 13. The crusade was waged against the Cathars in Languedoc and Bosnia in the twentieth century. this practice continued in the 15th century against the Waldensians in Savoy and the Hussites in Bohemia and in the 16th century against the Protestants. Beginning in the mid-14th century, the rhetoric of the crusade was used in response to the rise of the Ottoman Empire and ended around 1699 with the Holy League War. The Crusades were a series of military campaigns organized by popes and Western Christian powers to retake Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim control and then defend those gains. Between 1095 and 1270, there were eight major official crusades, as well as many more unofficial ones. The Crusades in the Holy Land are the best known of the religious wars associated with the term, which began in 1095 and lasted for about two centuries. [10] These crusades began with a fervent desire to wrest the Holy Land from Muslims, and during this period went through eight great crusades and dozens of smaller crusades.

[11] [12] And Bossie will once again be in the midst of all this, all the more dangerous as he has learned from his past crusades. The following crusades were largely the story of Christians shooting their crossbows into their own feet. The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) managed to identify Constantinople, the largest Christian city in the world, as the main target. Papal ambitions, the financial greed of the Venetians and a century of mutual distrust between the East and West of the ancient Roman Empire created a storm of aggression that led to the plundering of the capital of the Byzantine Empire in 1204. The empire was divided between Venice and its allies, its riches and relics were returned to Europe. The Crusader army reached Antioch on March 19, 1148, with the intention of reconquering Edessa, but Baldwin III of Jerusalem and the Templars had other ideas. The Council of Acre took place on June 24, 1148 and changed the purpose of the Second Crusade to Damascus, a former ally of the kingdom who had shifted his loyalty to that of the Zengids. The Crusaders fought in the summer of 1147 in the Battle of Bosra with Damascus without a clear winner. [82] The Crusaders` bad luck and tactics led to the disastrous five-day siege of Damascus from July 24 to 28, 1148.

[83] The barons of Jerusalem withdrew their support and the Crusaders withdrew before the arrival of an auxiliary army led by Nūr-ad-Din. Morale declined, hostility towards the Byzantines grew, and mistrust grew between the newly arrived Crusaders and those who had taken up residence in the region after the previous Crusades. The French and German forces felt betrayed by each other and remained in the Holy Land for a generation because of the defeat, the ruin of the Christian kingdoms. [84] The Crusades had enormous consequences for everyone involved. In addition to the obvious death, destruction and hardship caused by wars, they also had important political and social implications. The Byzantine Empire ceased to be, the popes became the de facto rulers of the Christian Church, the Italian maritime states monopolized the Mediterranean market in East-West trade and the Balkans were Christianized, and on the Iberian Peninsula, the Moors were pushed back into North Africa. The idea of the crusade was extended even further to provide a religious justification for the conquest of the New World in the 15th and 16th centuries. The very cost of the Crusades allowed the royal houses of Europe to take power, while those of the barons and nobles decreased accordingly. People traveled a little more, especially on pilgrimages, and they read and sang songs about the Crusades, which opened up their worldview a little more, even if it turned out to be biased for many.

The Crusades of 1239-1241, also known as the Barons` Crusade, were a series of crusades in the Holy Land that were the most successful in territorial terms since the First Crusade. [149] The great expeditions were led separately by Theobald I of Navarre and Richard of Cornwall. [150] These crusades are sometimes discussed with that of Baldwin of Courtenay in Constantinople. The Seventh Crusade (1248–1254) was the first of two crusades under the leadership of Louis IX of France.[151] Also known as Louis IX`s crusade in the Holy Land, their goal was to recover the Holy Land by attacking Egypt, the seat of Muslim power in the Middle East, then under al-Salih Ayyub, the son of al-Kamil. The crusade was conducted in response to setbacks in the kingdom of Jerusalem, beginning with the loss of the holy city in 1244, and was preached by Innocent IV in conjunction with a crusade against Emperor Frederick II, the Prussian Crusades, and the Mongol incursions. [161] Historians consider the Crusader military architecture of the Middle East to be a synthesis of European, Byzantine, and Muslim traditions and to be the most original and impressive artistic achievement of the Crusades. Castles and palaces were a tangible symbol of the domination of a Latin Christian minority over a largely hostile majority population. They also functioned as administrative centers. [217] Modern historiography rejects the 19th-century consensus that Westerners learned the basics of Middle Eastern military architecture, as Europe had already experienced rapid development of defense technology before the First Crusade. Direct contact with the Arab fortifications originally built by the Byzantines influenced developments in the East, but the lack of documentary evidence means that it remains difficult to distinguish between the importance of this design culture and the constraints of the situation.

The latter led to the inclusion of eastern design features such as large water reservoirs and the exclusion of western features such as ditches. [218] The anti-Christian crusades declined in the 15th century, with the exception of the six failed crusades against the radical religious Hussites in Bohemia and the attacks on the Waldensians in Savoy. [209] The Crusade became a fiscal year; Priority has been given to commercial and political objectives.