Christianity, in its infancy, was a very threatened state. It was enriched with radical ideas that called for the worship of a single god in place of the many dieties that had ruled for centuries before. These radical concepts took a while to sink in and become the root of what would be the modern era. The world of the latter 9th century and early 10th century was in a state of turmoil, resulting from the recent adoption of Christianity as

the official religion of the modern world. In order to cement its hold on the masses, the political heads of the day decided to quell all internal conflicts and unite against an enemy whose destruction would help to further develop the hold that the Pope, and the church, had on the world.

The Muslims were originally a tight banded group of

love our neighbors. In order to love your neighbor, you can't

For the West, however, the Crusaders' greatest achievement was the opening of the eastern Mediterranean to European shipping. The Venetians and Genoese established trading colonies in Egypt, and luxury goods of the East found their way to European markets. In the history of the Middle Ages, this was far more important than conquests resulting in land. Control of the Eastern trade became a constantly recurring theme in later relations between the European countries and the East, and in the nineteenth century was to lead to widespread Western intervention.

military aid. Pope Urban, hoping to divert the Christian kings and princes from their struggles with each other, and perhaps also seeing an opportunity to reunite the Eastern and Western churches, called for a "Truce of God" among the rulers of Europe and urged them to take the Holy Land from the Muslims.

in God's commandments. God's commandments read that we should

in persuit of holy tasks, in an attempt to uphold the faith and

an individual would consider death as a way for survival purposes

Urban, an opportunist, saw this as a perfect way to solve some of his local problems. He personally promoted a Holy Crusade to reclaim the Holy Lands from the barbarian Turks. Thus, the First Crusade was launched in 1095.

Interestingly enough, Pope Urban II died before he could see Jerusalem fall to his crusaders.

covinced his followers that the only way to do 'right' for the

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Approximate Word count = 1612
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)