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(the “crusades” were a series of ‘religious wars’ sanctioned by the ‘latin church’ in the ‘medieval period’, especially the campaigns in the ‘eastern mediterranean’ with the aim of capturing ‘jerusalem’ and the ‘holy land’ from ‘islamic rule’, to recapture ‘christian territory’ and defend christian ‘pilgrims’)
(the term “crusades” is also applied to other campaigns sanctioned by the ‘Church’, fought to combat ‘paganism’ and ‘heresy’ or to resolve conflict among rival ‘Roman Catholic’ groups, or to gain political or territorial advantage)
(the term crusades itself is early modern, modelled on ‘Middle Latin’ cruciatae, and has in more recent times been extended to include religiously motivated Christian military campaigns in the ‘Late Middle Ages’)
(the ‘First Crusade’ arose after a call to arms in a 1095 sermon by ‘Pope Urban II’)
(‘urban’ urged military support for the ‘Byzantine Empire’ and its Emperor, ‘Alexios I’, who needed reinforcements for his conflict with westward migrating ‘Turks’ in ‘Anatolia’)
(one of Urban’s stated aims was to guarantee pilgrims access to the holy sites in the ‘Eastern Mediterranean’ that were under Muslim control, but scholars disagree whether this was the primary motivation for ‘Urban’ or the majority of those who heeded his call)
(Urban’s wider strategy may have been to unite the Eastern and Western branches of Christendom, which had been divided since their split in the ‘East–West Schism’ of 1054, and establish himself as head of the unified Church)
(similarly, some of the hundreds of thousands of people who became crusaders by taking a public vow and receiving plenary indulgences from the church were peasants hoping for ‘Apotheosis’ at Jerusalem, or forgiveness from God for all their sins)
(others, historians argue, participated to satisfy feudal obligations, gain glory and honour, or find opportunities for economic and political gain)
(regardless of the motivation, the response to Urban’s preaching by people of many different classes across ‘Western Europe’ established the precedent for later crusades)
(different perspectives of the actions carried out, at least nominally, under Papal authority during the crusades have polarized historians)
(to some their behavior was incongruous with the stated aims and implied moral authority of the papacy and the crusades, in one case to the extent that the Pope excommunicated crusaders)
(‘crusaders’ often pillaged as they travelled, while their leaders retained control of much captured territory rather than returning it to the ‘Byzantines’)
(‘The People’s Crusade’ included the ‘Rhineland massacres’: the murder of thousands of Jews)
(‘Constantinople’ was sacked during the ‘Fourth Crusade’, rendering the reunification of ‘Christendom’ impossible)
(the ‘crusades’ had a profound impact on Western civilization: they reopened the ‘Mediterranean’ to commerce and travel (enabling ‘Genoa’ and ‘Venice’ to flourish); consolidated the collective identity of the ‘Latin Church’ under papal leadership; and were a wellspring for accounts of ‘heroism’, ‘chivalry’, and ‘piety’)
(these tales consequently galvanized medieval ‘romance’, ‘philosophy’, and ‘literature’)
(the ‘crusades’ also reinforced the connection between ‘western christendom’, ‘feudalism’, and ‘militarism’)
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👈👈👈☜*back to “THE MIDDLE EAST”* ☞ 👉👉👉
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💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥