Historically, Jerusalem was a disputed area, and this is true to this day, and it is recorded that people lived here about 4,000 years ago, and over time it gradually became a holy place for religion, and Christianity, Judaism, and the Arab world appeared here.
The reasons for this phenomenon, as will be mentioned below, were the result of the continuous wars that caused Jerusalem to suffer from successive wars during the Middle Ages, mainly because of the Crusades.
Speaking of crusaders, everyone may not be unfamiliar, in the minds of many people, they wear heavy armor and hold long swords, fighting for their faith. The crusaders may have had this intention, but their actions were not justified, they were said to be for faith, but the ultimate goal was mainly to plunder. And this absurd war lasted for nearly two hundred years, today Xiaobian will talk about the history of the Crusaders, to see what they have done with other forces.
Jerusalem and the birth of the Crusades
Geographically, Jerusalem is located between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and according to monotheism (the three great apocalyptic religions), all three religions are derived from the primitive religions of the Semitic peoples of the Middle East, so the situation in Jerusalem is not a coincidence. But because of the difference in beliefs, contradictions also arise. About 1,000 AD, King David of the Israelites led his people to occupy the area and established a capital here, named Jerusalem.
But the Jews did not live too peacefully here, and in 588 B.C., the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem and enslaved the Jews.
After the rise of the Persian Empire and the destruction of Babylon, in order to expand their achievements, the Persians released the peoples who had previously been imprisoned by the Babylonians, including the Jews, and they were able to return to Jerusalem. But not long after the good times, the Romans came again, this time Jerusalem was completely bulldozed, leaving only a wall (later the Wailing Wall), and the Jews were completely expelled from Jerusalem.
Prior to this, in A.D. 33, Jesus had served as a Roman clerk in Jerusalem, but was unfortunately crucified, and over time, Christianity was born, and Jerusalem became a holy place for Christianity.
By 638 AD, the Arab Empire had occupied Jerusalem, and under Arab rule, there was a harmonious scene in Jerusalem, and all denominations were relatively free. But by the 11th century, the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt began to exclude Christians, which also provided a powerful excuse for the birth of the Crusades.
In 1095, a conference was held in Italy, which involved not only archbishops and nobles from all over the country, but also many commoners. At this meeting, the Europeans learned of what was happening in the east and believed that the crusade was a way to gain wealth, and the meeting also decided to gather European military forces to take Jerusalem, and the symbol of the troops was established as the cross, and the name "Crusade" was born.
Several crusades of the Crusades
The First Crusades were not actually initiated by European armies, but by a group of nomads. According to the above, there are also a large number of civilians involved in the synod, and they may not have heard about the recapture of the Holy Land, but they were greatly attracted to poverty alleviation, and even these civilians believed that they would get rich as soon as they reached Jerusalem. Thus began an immigrant crusade, with many Europeans dragging their families and squirming to the east and robbing along the way to make ends meet, before they were wiped out by Turkic forces as soon as they arrived in Asia Minor.
This crusade was extremely unsuccessful, and history called the "Civilian Crusade". After this episode, the Crusaders, composed of elite European troops, began to set out, the regular army was indeed much stronger than the refugees, after all, it was the official First Crusade, and the preparation was naturally very well prepared, while the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt was obviously ill-prepared, so Jerusalem was occupied by the Crusaders.
Then the crusaders' behavior completely deviated from their original intentions, and after entering the city, it was a ruthless massacre and crazy plunder, so the reputation of the crusaders has been very bad in history.
In 1144 AD, the Arab world began to counterattack, which led to the failure of the Second Crusade. By 1187 AD, the Arab world had ushered in a hero, Saladin, even a hostile crusader because he was a great man. The Crusaders under Saladin's leadership were driven out of Jerusalem, and Saladin's behavior after entering the city was not enough to describe it as benevolent. Then Charles the Lionheart formed an alliance with Frederick I and Philip II to retake Jerusalem, but the trio's luck was not very good, Frederick I died halfway, Philip II and Charles had a conflict, and halfway back. So it ended up being a separate showdown between Lionheart and Saladin, and after the battle, the two sides reached an armistice.
Since then, the Crusaders' objectives have shifted, and they are ready to directly overthrow the Ayyubid dynasty entrenched in Egypt, but all end in failure, and the process is full of scum. By the time of the Fifth Crusade, although it also ended in failure, an unexpected situation occurred, and the Khwarazm state in Central Asia attacked Genghis Khan's caravans, and indirectly caused the Mongol army to march west.
This was good news for the Crusaders, and even they once thought the Orientals were their allies, but the truth was not as good as they thought.
The Arab world was in jeopardy due to the intrusion of Mongol armies, and the Ayyubid dynasty was replaced by the Mamluk dynasty. Regarding this Mamluk, it was actually the name of a military bloc, a slave regiment directly under the rule of the Sultan, whose combat effectiveness was at its peak at that time. At the Battle of Ainzalut, the Mamluks defeated and beheaded the Mongol general Timid Buhua, so Egypt was saved, while the main Mongol army had withdrawn from West Asia due to internal struggles, and the crisis in the Arab world was also lifted.
The fall of the Crusaders
Since the withdrawal of Hulagu's army, Europe has carried out several more plans for the crusades, but the results are no different from farce. At the same time, the Mamluks grew stronger and launched a series of counterattacks, the Crusaders were defeated one after another, and the Crusader states were also facing uprooting. In 1390, at the request of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II, the Crusaders carried out their final crusades, before which the Crusaders had actually died out in name only, and with their defeat by the Ottoman army, the Crusaders disappeared from history completely.
References : The Birth of Europe, Encyclopedia of Religions, Crusades