Essay 5 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

5 - Essay Example In other words, they wanted to fulfill their feudal obligations. There were strong connections between the social necessity of violence and papal reforms, as well as the exploitation of this revivalistic imagination of the Papacy age. Even though the Crusades failed to attain permanent control of the Holy Land, their influence was both wide and deep. In their crusading fervor, they carried out succesful fights against the Muslims in Spain along with the pagan Slavs in the eastern Europe. In some instances they engaged in the war with infidels in self-defense (Prevità ©-Orton 282). As cited by Esposito (335), in 1095, the destruction of the Holy Sepulchure by the Fatmid caliph al-Hakim sparked the initial Crusade. Majority of the Christians viewed al-Hakim as an Antichrist. In the same way, Prevità ©-Orton (282) notes that the Holy Sepulcher was the holiest shrine in Christianity. Another motivation for the Crusade was the Byzantine’s Emperor Alexius I plea for assistance. Most of the Byzantine Empire had been conquered by the Constantinople together with Seljuk Turks. The Christians engaged in the war because Jerusalem, Jesus’ birthplace was also at threat. They wanted to regain the occupied territories (Madden 10). Lastly, the Crusades also had economic motives. They were responsible for the reopening of the eastern Mediterranean to Western commerce. This resulted in the emergence of great cities like Venice in addition to the emergence of a money economy in the