The crusades were a series of wars that were mainly religious in nature. The two main sides were Islamic and Christianity. The primary purpose of the war was to secure control of the holy sites considered sacred by each group. A total of eight major crusades took place from 1096 to 1291 ( Krey, 2012). The violent, ruthless and bloody conflict changed the status of the European Christianity, making them key players in the fight for the conquered land in the Middle East. The existence of conflicting cultures between the Muslims and Christianity and the need by the Byzantine emperor to recapture the land lost to Muslim community initiated the call for military actions, prompting the call for the first crusade.
The first crusade of the 1095-1099 was one of the many crusades that were organized by Pope Urban II in an attempt capture the Byzantine Empire which had been conquered by Seljuq Turks. The military expedition re-captured the Holy land which had been conquered by the Islamic expansion. This was a reaction to appeal for military aid by Byzantine emperor. Urban II proposed warfare against the recently occupied cities of Antioch. During the conquests, crusaders established the kingdom of Jerusalem and Antioch, which was against the wish of the Byzantines who wanted their land taken by the Muslims returned to them. The first crusade was brought about by the combination of factors in Europe and the east. The political situation of the Catholic Christendom, political and social state in Europe gave rise to the reform movement within the papacy and a confrontation between Christianity and Islamic religion in the east. Byzantine Empire had to fight back for their land that had been taken by the Muslims, giving rise to more confrontations in the East.
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The Byzantine Empire which was conquered by the Seljuq Turks was mainly Christians. The empire transformed from the late Roman Empire to the Christianity. The churches spread throughout the empire and changed the whole land. Initially they were under the Roman Empire, which was too big too big for them to manage, prompting the division into smaller groups. Constantinople was a city of diversity. The residents were multi-ethnic. The merchants actively traded with the regions in the Mediterranean and east. The empire also witnessed a change in the language during the rule of Constantine. During this period, the language changed to Latin. However, the main spoken language was mainly Greek. After the reign of Justinian, Byzantine Greek became the major language for both written and spoken. The other section of the population still spoke Latin dividing communication. Due to the language differences and diversity in the customs, the two churches emerged. These were the Greek Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church, which all had different beliefs concerning Jesus Christ. They also had different beliefs on the nature of God and the date of Easter. The difference in the culture and the division witnessed in the empire facilitated the conquering of the Byzantine land by the Muslims. In the process some of the Byzantine empires converted to the Islamic religion, creating more diversity in the culture of the people of this empire. The empire lost most of its land to the Islamic religion during the military war, making them seek help from Pope Urban II ( Frankopan, P. 2012) . They wanted to get back their land, and not being used by the Catholic to build churches. After the war, they go back their land which was used by the empire to construct churches.
The conquerors, Seljuq Turkish, were Islamic dominated. They were nomadic horsemen who converted to Islamic they conquered the majority of the Middle East and Asia. They created a huge empire that expended to the Mediterranean and other parts of the Saia. During 1098, they conquered the land of Byzantine where they managed to convert most of the people to Islamic. The first crusade emerged which involved wars between Muslims and Christianity who all wanted to have control of the site they considered sacred and holy. They had gained considerable territory from the Byzantine. The crusade created a stage for many military orders when the two sides fought. They organized troops of different armies led by Raymond and Godfrey who departed for Byzantine in the year 1096 to help fight for the territory ( Gabriele, M. 2011). They believed in war as the only way to acquire the territory of the land they needed. They had a group of military which they used to attack the territory of the Byzantine Empire. Their belief in war and the culture of protecting what was sacred to them provided the driving forces that motivated them to fight for the conquering of the territory. The empire had a different belief from that of Christianity. They believed in the land being holy and a sacred place which they had to protect.
In conclusion, the first crusade involved the military war between the Muslims and Christianity. The war was based on the struggle for the territory where each group wanted to have control over the territory. The two sides had different beliefs about God even though they all recognized the existence of the holy place. The war led to each group adopting the culture of the other. The most affected being the Byzantine who were mainly converted to Muslims by the Seljuq Turkish. Some few Muslims also converted to Christianity. By the end of the eleventh century, Europe had emerged victorious in its right although it ended up losing some of its territories to the Islamic religion.
References
Krey, A. C. (Ed.). (2012). The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eye-Witnesses and Participants (Vol. 1). Arx Publishing, LLC.
Gabriele, M. (2011). An empire of memory: the legend of Charlemagne, the Franks, and Jerusalem before the First Crusade . Oxford University Press.
Frankopan, P. (2012). The First Crusade: the call from the east . Harvard University Press.
