The Crusades

The crusades were the various battles fought to reclaim the holy land from Islamic rule. In all there were eight or nine crusades depending on how you count them but here we will count eight. Some of these campaigns were greatly successful and others were total failures.

The first crusade began when Pope Urban II made a call to arms sermon and it was greatly accepted by the people. This first crusade was launched on November 27, 1095 A.D. Once the crusaders had made it to the city of Jerusalem, after taking over Odessa, which was a settlement in the Holy Land, they launched an attack on the city and succeeded in 1099 A.D. All of the Muslims inside were massacred and the city of Jerusalem was once again under Christian control. You might simply say that the first crusade was a great success.

The second crusade was started when Jerusalem, Odessa, and other parts of the Holy Land were once again taken over by the Muslims. The pope commissioned Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to give the call to arms. On this crusade they had the support of King Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, who made their way towards the Holy Land. Unfortunately, the two kings, Louis VII and Conrad III got sidetracked and were focusing on the city of Damascus, and failed at conquering it. They never even reached Jerusalem, nor did the crusaders, and therefore you can easily see that the second crusade was a complete failure.

The purpose of the third crusade was to conquer the Holy Land from Saladin, who was a Sultan of Egypt and led the Muslim military campaigns against the crusaders. King Richard I of England and King Philip II of France came on this crusade, and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, was coming as well, but on the way he drowned in a river and his army split up into to groups, with most of them retuning home and some continuing. After the crusaders had driven the Muslims away from the city of Acre, in 1192 A.D., they made a treaty that allowed Christian pilgrims and merchants to visit the Holy Land and the city of Jerusalem without persecution. Some people were not content with how things turned out and wanted Jerusalem to be under Christian rule, not just to visit, so through this unrest other crusades were started.

 Now comparing the Crusades to the present it is the same in most things of life today, for example, once I was fishing at our pond on a warm sunny day and I was just not catching anything, after a long time of casting and reeling, I decided to come back after lunch and I went home. I went back to the pond later that afternoon and still there wasn’t a single bite and I was getting hot and tired and it was getting late, but just as I was about to pack up and leave, I felt a large jerk on my line and instantly started to reel it in. The fish I pulled out was a huge rainbow trout and it was probably the biggest fish that I had caught all summer long. I think the reason I succeeded was because even though I was hot, tired, and frustrated, I kept on going. That is how we succeed, even though things seem tough there is always a reason for the problems and successes that we have. Comparing this to the crusades, I think the reason that the first crusade was so successful was because all of the people were unified and determined to succeed, whereas the second and third crusades did not have the determination and unity that the first one had. The lesson we learn from these crusades is an important one, it shows us that if we are all a team and determined to achieve the same goal we have a great chance at succeeding.

Information gathered from Wikipedia: The Crusades and the Ron Paul curriculum 7^th grade History Class