Question #37608

1 Answer
Mar 4, 2017

The Crusades were religiously inspired wars to liberate lands for orthodox Catholics The Crusades have and still are alternating history.

Explanation:

The primary focus of the Crusades were to liberate the Holy Land of Israel from the Seljuk Turks. One Crusade focused on Southern France to destroy the influence of the Waldensans and other non orthodox Christian that the Catholic Church considered heretical for their use of their translation of the Bible into the local language.

The Crusades were successful creating the "Kingdom of God" in Israel. This Kingdom lasted only 100 years before being reconquered by Kurdise Muslims. Subsequent Crusades to regain control of the Holy Land were unsuccessful.

One immediate result was the weakening and destruction of the empire of the Seljuk Turks allowing the resurgence of the Kurds and Arab Muslims. The Ottoman Turks were later become the dominate power in the Muslim world.

The Renaissance was another result of the Crusades. The knowledge of Greeks and Romans which had been preserved by the Muslim scholars was brought back to Europe by the Crusaders. This renewed knowledge helped to spark the Renaissance.

The Protestant Reformation was sparked indirectly by the Crusades. The Crusaders brought back the Greek Bible. The Latin version of the Bible favored by the Catholic Church had dominated Europe before the Crusades. After the Crusades was possible to read the Bible in the original Greek. This weakened the authority of the Catholic Church. It is conceivable that without the Crusades the Catholic church would have continued to dominate Europe for a much longer period of time.

The Scientific Revolution was also sparked by the Crusades. The Scientific knowledge of the Muslim world was more advanced than the science in Europe at the time. The scientific knowledge and writings brought back by the Crusaders ( much of it previously lost knowledge of the Greeks and Romans) caused a revolution in science through out Europe.

One last results was a deepening of the conflict and hatred between the Muslim world and the Christian World. Islam regarded the Holy Land as belonging to Islam. The Crusades were seen as an invasion of their land. This bitterness still exists in the Muslim world today.