Crusades in the 12th century

Crusades in the 12^th century: causes, events, effects

In the 12^th century, there were 3 civilisations around the Mediterranean basin: the Christians in the west, the Muslims in the East and the South, and the Byzantines in between.

The first crusade was between the Christians and the Muslims. The crusade was asked by the Pope Urban II. Urban II wanted a crusade to set the holy shrine free from the Muslims. The holy shrine is situated in Palestine, but it is a holy land for the Muslims too.

For the Pope, The Turks (who were Muslim) were his enemies because they had another religion. He promised that crusaders who went crusade would be forgiven of all theirs sins and they were dead sure to go to Heaven.

During the first crusade, Christians conquered new lands because there were many landless lords who wanted to get a land for themselves; but the Pope never asked them to conquer new lands.

However, Christians divided Palestine into four crusaders states: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and d the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Muslims did not want Christians to conquer their lands, so they launched their own holy war: the Djihad. From 1099 to 1204, there were four crusades.

Christians were very cruel during the crusades and in their testimonies they exaggerated saying in the streets there were piles of heads, hands, feet; people had to wade in blood up to the knees… Whereas Muslims spoke of death too, but not so exaggerated and, they were more open-minded: when Christians were defeated, if they wanted to stay in Palestine, they could, but they had to pay a tax.

In a short term, crusades were a success because crusaders created new states in Palestine, BUT it was a long-term failure because today, Jerusalem is no longer a Christian city.

Nowadays, we don’t understand crusades very well because the Pope said they were wanted by God, but we can’t imagine God, who symbolises peace, asking Christians to kill and exterminate the Muslims. However, for medieval people, crusades were an act of piety, charity and love.