Comparison between the Ancient Crusades and the Western Civilization

0 Background Information From 1096 to 1291, the Christians and the Muslims engaged in a chain of religious wars which were referred to as crusades. These crusades were because the two religious groups wanted to have control of the Holy Sites, including the city of Jerusalem, which were considered sacred by the two religions. The first crusade was called in 1996 by Pope Urban II at the council of Clermont during a sermon. He called for military protection for the Christian pilgrims who were going to the holy city of Jerusalem and to the other holy sites in the Eastern Mediterranean. After the first crusade, there were other seven major crusades by the Catholics to take control of the holy land, and all this was futile.

1 In this connection, Muslims took control of the city in 600 CE and allowed the Christians and the Jews pilgrims to Jerusalem as long as they paid taxes. In 1095, The Seljuk Turks, a new group of the Muslims were in control of Jerusalem and the holy lands, and they could not allow the Christians and the Jews pilgrims into it. Pope Urban II was asked by the Byzantine Emperor to help him regain control of hoy lands for the Christians and to protect his nation from falling under Muslim control. The Pope also wanted to unify warring Christian countries and to solve the conflict between the Christian groups who were divided during the East-West Schism. 2 Thus Urban wanted to establish a unified church which he would become her head.

The interaction with the Islamic world increased the European knowledge in medical and scientific. The crusades created the basis for the modern war on terrorism, especially in America, which referred to war against terror as a crusade. 3 The Relationship Between the Ancient Crusades and Western Civilization Although the army of the crusaders was nominally feudal their composition was complex. The army comprised of the knights, armed monks and pilgrims, Sergeant and Turcopoles and the arriere-ban, which helped to maintain the army in the field. The knights and the Barons comprised of the tenants-in-chief ad the Lords respectively. The people argue that the religious zealotry and blood-lust that made Christians launch the first crusade are the same factors that are causing the western activities and military actions in the Middle East today.

In 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist attack in the United States, the then President George W. Bush, and declared war on terrorism, calling it a crusade. This caused sharp reactions from the Middle East and Europe who vowed that the terror attack in the US and the US war on terrorism should not cause a new clash of civilizations just like the ancient crusades. 7 This war on terrorism made America launch an attack in Iraq, which came to be known as the Iraq war, although Iraq had nothing to do with the US terror attack. 9 Due to the Iran anti-American regime that was brought to power by the 1997 revolution, Iran is the only country in the Middle East to lack diplomatic relations with the United States.

The American government's foreign policies in the Middle East in the recent time are to curb the spread of mass destructive weapons and to solve the rivalry between Arab and Israel. The current United States military action in the Middle East depicts the conflict between the American culture and ideas against those of the Arabic Islamic. The United States view their activities and presence in the Middle East as moral and good, while the Muslims view it as God’s will. 10 The Arab Muslims in the Middle East equate the American activities in the region to the western European invasion in the crusades. 12 America argues that the purpose of the war with Afghanistan was to free the citizen of Afghan from the Taliban oppressive regime.

She also wanted to free the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein, who was an oppressive and brutal dictator and protect the weapons of mass destruction from being used by a terrorist in both Iraqi and Afghanistan. The costs of the ancient crusades and the western civilization were enormous in terms of the money used to support the crusaders and the American soldiers. Both the Crusades and the American military action in the Middle East led to the massacre of innocent people as others lost limbs and even their eye sights. The two also led to increased tension and suspicion between the Muslims and the Christians in the world as the terrorist activity increases in the different part of the world.  Externalizing The Burden Of War: The Obama Doctrine And US Foreign Policy In The Middle East.