What is your quest? An insight of the Crusades

As we began discussing the silk road and how trade routes connected cultures in our World History course, I was thinking of a different type of connection between societies. War has often caused cultures to collide and sometimes that collision is welcomed, while other times, it is not welcomed and disliked. One of the events that truly led to the spread of Christianity throughout medieval Europe is the Crusades, and this blog post will give just a bit of insight as to what the crusades actually were and why they were fought.

Here is a pretty useful map that depicts where each Crusade was fought and the path that they traveled as they ventured across Europe in 1095. The Crusades spread from the furthest northern point in the Holy Roman Empire down into Constantinople and finally reaching even Jerusalem, where control of the country was taken away from the Muslims and it was declared a Christian country. In the map linked above, each line represents a different Crusade and the wide-scaled path that they took. In a time where travel was difficult between nations, especially in this region, this was a feat in and of itself.

The Crusades were a group of "invasions" that were sponsored by none other than the Pope himself--Pope Urban II. At this time, the Christian empire was under threat by many Muslim countries of the area. The Pope was urged to send out defenses to free one of the Muslim capitals, Jerusalem, from Muslim control, as well as to free other areas and Christianize them. In all, there were four different Crusades.

According to this useful website, the first Crusade was a success. Jerusalem was captured! The third Crusade is probably one of the most famous ones.

There, "The third ended in 1192 in a compromise between English king Richard the Lion-Hearted of England and the Muslim leader Saladin, who granted access to Christians to the holy places."

Other Crusade events led to the destruction of the once famous capital of Constantinople. Perhaps the least discussed Crusade, however, is that of the Children's Crusade. During this particular Crusade, a boy by the name of Stephen of Cloyes, who was said to only have been twelve, thoroughly believed that Christ had chosen him to help spread the religion to the world. This website explains that Stephen's Crusade was not the only Children's Crusade that was started during this time, and that other countries were quick to follow in suite. However, this particular website describes a popular belief that while the children who followed Stephen and Stephen himself were unheard of once they departed from France, it is rumored that the children were captured by pirates and were later sold into slavery, marking the decline of the popularity of the Crusades.

So, were the Crusades successful? They did gain control over both Constantinople and Jerusalem at given times, and these were two powerful cities controlled by two powerful Muslim empires at different times in history. It is said that the Crusades were only fought to take control of Jerusalem, but why did they continue after it was won during the first Crusade? If Pope Urban II's goal was met at the end of the First Crusade, why were there three other Crusades, as well as other Children's Crusades that followed? It was a wide-scaled attempt to spread Christianity throughout Europe. Christianity remains one of the leading religions of the West in today's society. I do not think that this would have been possible were it not for the "success" of the Crusades, but I leave that question open to the readers of this post. Were the Crusades successful? If so, what did they accomplish? What was the main goal of fighting the Crusades? Was it as simple as just trying to conquer Jerusalem, or was there more to them than that?