Middle Ages Dbq

The Middle Ages was an interesting time period. All around the world things were happening, but the spotlight stayed on Europe. The Middle Ages was a period of insecurity, famine, and religious war. Christianity was the main focus of religion in the Middle Ages. As a system called Feudalism rose, many people turned toward God as a safe haven. For many people there was not much to live for. When the people died, they wanted to get to heaven to experience eternal happiness. In 1056 a.d. the Byzantine church split into two different religions which was later known as "The Schism of 1056". These religions were Eastern Orthodox and Catholicism. This split appeared because the religious leaders thought that the church should be ran different ways.
After the split Catholicism spread like wildfire. In the Catholic Church the leader is called a Pope. The Pope was not only herald who delivers God's messages, but also someone who keeps the Church organized. When the Pope spoke hundreds of thousands of people would come and listen to what he had to say. Near the end of the eleventh century a man named Odo was voted Pope. Odo had ran for papacy in the election before, but lost to Victor III. Victor III remained Pope for three years which was the day of his death. Odo decided to try to become Pope again, and then succeeded. As he stepped into papacy he changed his name to Urban II. As Urban II started his papacy no one knew that he would start a religious war that would kill many people. November 27th, 1095 was a day that went down in history as the start of something unexpected. Pope Urban II called for a speech. He shared updates about the Church and how he wanted to move forward. Many people traveled from all over Europe to hear him speak. There were so many people that they could not all fit in the place where he spoke. As people came they had no idea that Urban was going to share and idea that would change the face of history. Urban II presented the idea of an armed pilgrimage. Over four centuries before Urban II spoke their holy lands had been invaded by Muslims. They had taken over and seemed to be gone forever. Pope Urban wanted that holy land for pilgrimage, otherwise known as to the Catholics traveling to holy lands and paying respect. As the people heard this idea they were amazed. They did not realize how much damage this "armed pilgrimage" would leave. The people did not think of it as war, but as taking lands that they thought belonged to them. Throughout history many people have taken lands from other people and named it their own. For some it was second nature to do so. Using war for religion was also not uncommon. The muslims referred to their religious wars as "Jihad". This term was supposed to make it seem like what they were doing was for the sole purpose of religion, and they thought the name also justified what they were doing. The people did not think they needed to justify what they were doing because they did not see it to be a bad thing. They saw it as an opportunity to be closer to God. The people did not think about how much destruction they were about to cause. Urban II also did not know what he was getting into. To his surprise his idea spread all throughout Europe quickly. Urban reminded his people how the Arabs and Turks had taken their holy lands and killed many of the Catholic people. He then proceeded to say: "On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends. I say this to those who are present, it meant also for those who are absent. Moreover, Christ commands it" ("Internet History Sourcebooks Project"). As more and more people heard about this idea, they all filled with joy at the possibility of regaining holy land. The holy land would help the people get to heaven. As the First Crusade began, so did a dark time because there was still plague and invaders.
The war that was about to begin was not for seen to make it worse, but it did. As the Catholics headed over to take back their holy lands, they had to make stops. They needed to gather supplies such as food for themselves, food for their horses, and weapons. They gathered their supplies by raiding cities, much like the Mongols had done. They ruthlessly killed the people of the city that fought against them. As the Crusaders proceeded to raid cities they accidentally destroyed a Catholic city. They had thought they were killing and taking food and other supplies from Muslims, but they were actually betraying themselves. As they continued on with their war it had gotten more violent as time went on. They killed anyone who was to stand in their way. They wore armor with a big red cross on the front to signify to people who they were. If a villager had saw incoming people with red crosses, they knew that they were about to dieThe First Crusade had lasted four years, from 1095 ad to 1099 ad. The Crusaders had taken back their land, Jerusalem, but little did they know, that was not the end of it. The First Crusade had left a mark on many other societies, as well as their
own. The land they had taken back was only a little portion of what they wanted. They had succeeded for the First Crusade, so nothing was stopping them. This resulted in seven (some say eight) more Crusades. Many historians can argue that all the murder and war was justifies because they were doing it for a holy reason. In my opinion killing millions of innocent people can never be justified. Religion should be peaceful, not an excuse to kill people and take land that they wanted. The First Crusade made the Dark Ages even more dark, not shining a good light on it. Hundreds of thousands of people started out as soldiers for the Crusades, otherwise known as Crusaders, and in the end there were not even ten thousand soldiers.