hard to imagine the history of the Middle Ages without the Crusades, which in XI-XIII centuries shook the entire Middle East.In these mass invasions took an active part as representatives of the European nobility and commoners, who were trying to clear the land from the wicked Muslims.
Crusaders.Who are they?
People who styled himself, professed Christianity.Hence the name of campaigns, as well as the soldiers who were involved in them.Initiates the blood that they had shed, the simple peasants quickly became professional fighters.Crusader - a knight.These soldiers took up arms and went to the wrong for various reasons: some - because of a thirst for adventure, others - for the sake of material gain, others were really notorious religious fanatics.Participants of the first marches called themselves pilgrims, and their military raids - the sacred way pleasing to God or pilgrimage.
Dressed Knights respectively.Crusader - a religious warrior who dresses in the armor and placed the cross, they were to march on his chest, after a successful return - on the back.Distant travel Knights have always been shrouded in an aura of grandeur and romance.Despite the heroism and valor, bravery and courage, they did not manage to finish the holy mission.Muslims continued to dominate in the East, also became full rulers of Palestine.
First Crusade
It started with Pope Urban, who in March 1095 clearly articulated economic reasons raids.He said European countries can not feed a population that is growing every year.Therefore, to save the life of an honest Christians need to capture the resource-rich eastern territories who unjustly occupied by the Muslims.As for religious reasons, they become an indisputable fact: the Holy Sepulchre, an important shrine of their faith, kept by the infidels, and it is fundamentally unacceptable.
Crusader - a simple man, inspired by Pope appeals.He, like others of his Sister, do not hesitate for a minute, threw their fields and went to the East.Collect crowd was not difficult: in those days the church and worshiped Europe was enveloped by religious fanaticism.The first campaign aimed at Constantinople, ended unsuccessfully.Most of the volunteers died in the way of disease, hunger and cold.The pathetic pile of tired people that get to the point of destination, the Turks destroyed.
results
Despite the defeat, the invaders did not give up and gradually build up strength.Within a few years the soldiers broke into Asia.Then they destroyed the city and the local organizing crusades power.They managed to capture Jerusalem and Byzantium, but the main goal, the Holy Sepulchre, and remained in the hands of the infidels.Someone started a false rumor that the only children's hands are able to release him.As a result, it was organized by the army, the core of which were young knights crusaders.Their age does not exceed 14-15 years.The result was tragic.Half of the minors died, the other part was sold into slavery.
Crusader - a man who was in complete subjection to the Church.Listening to sermons of priests, people and sought to justify the loss to new conquests.Total was committed eight Crusades.Their results are mixed.Firstly, the Catholic Church has expanded the zone of influence, enriched by new land.Second, the increased tension between the West and the East, there was a response from the threat of the infidels - the jihad.In addition, the final division of Christianity itself: Orthodoxy and Catholicism.
