What should you Know about Crusades

 History on Crusades

        The Crusades was a strict military expedition, the main reason for this event was for the Christians to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims who had control over it from the 11th century. This event was a product from the old medieval world that would eventually shape the fundamental way that we are living in today. There are positives and also negatives that come out of this event which I will outline in this paper, I will also be determining if this event brought the world out of the Dark Ages and whether or not these Crusades were justified.

        When you break down such an event as the Crusades it comes down to two different outcomes that are very serious, and the way they effect the life in Europe is all of the issues like politically, economically and social. One positive outcome that came out of this historic event is that it was the end of feudalism society that had been in place all around Western Europe, Monarchs gained strength when knights were going to fight in the Middle East to attack the Muslims, because of increased power these Monarchs got because feudal lords left to fight in the crusades it helped end the feudalism.  Positives outcomes from this event are the goods that were brought back from foreign lands, for example, spices, cloths but this also presented itself to have more demand for items such as these. Crusaders brought back the Roman and Greek classical views and some works of their culture back to influence their own culture from the expedition. 

        Some other effects that came out of this event is that it was the senseless violence and wars that were the product of recovering the holy land at all costs. Each side thought the ultimatum was worth any cause towards recovering that piece of land which they each though they deserved. There was also the undermining of the church's authority over the people, the distrust of Christians that were persecuted Jews that had destroyed the Muslims that stood in their path towards the Middle East region. With the paths of each region, Western Europe and the Middle East this would eventually open up the path for the future Muslims to start conquests of European countries. For this big event there was also a presented an opportunity to recognize the Asian world, in many aspects' historians said that Asia was way more advanced that Europe at the time and that this would help in the making of the cosmopolitan influence on Europe that would spread fast and become something we see in today's world.

        I don't think that this event alone brought Europe out of the Dark ages, but if definitely influenced it for sure. For example, like I mentioned before when this event was happening there was an influence from the Greek and Roman classical views of civilization, later with Asian influences and goods being introduced to the European world. The only reason I say that it didn't entirely get Europe out of the dark ages it because there are some negative effects that were quite wrong when we see all that happened during this time of war and loss over religious concepts. When it comes to understanding or the taking of sides on whether or not the Crusades that lasted many years was justified, because either side could argue that they were doing the best for their people that they believed was their duty. I don't want to condone the killing of people as justification, so I will say that these action events in history were acceptable because I don't believe that they were.

        To close, I think that the Crusades really did affect today's world in many different ways that I know I didn't even realize until I looked into the different outcomes and the material that we have been studying so far in this class. I think that the main things that took from the influences of this event was that the old Middle Age world was changed and sort of adapted to the Greek, Roman, and Asian influences because it showed that there were different civilizations that existed, and you could learn or adapt to their culture, goods and other things of that nature. There are always going to be two different sides to a story and that also comes along with pros and cons that are produced but I think that despite this event full of war, loss and societal change it obviously impacted the world as we know it today which if you really think about it is pretty awesome.

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