Intro to the Crusades

If I were to participate in any war before 1500, I would have to say that being a part of the crusades would probably be the most intriguing option for me. I think that the whole prospect of the crusades is a very interesting one, waging a holy war on a people for simply taking over one of your cities? That is a faith to reckon with. In 1076 the Muslims captured Jerusalem, which caused a bit of a rising with the predominately Christian Europe. Over a period of about 200 years there were a total of 8 DIFFERENT crusades. What could possibly be more intense than waging a holy war? Well you guessed it, and Medieval Europe carried it out, MULTIPLE holy wars.

Now, to be fair we need to look at this from the standpoint of the Muslims, because let’s face it, the world isn’t Christian. The Muslims equally wanted to maintain their hold on Jerusalem because surprisingly enough, it is a holy place for them as well. A high school history lesson might show, that interestingly, Muhammad had also been to this holy land, soo, that being said, both Muslims and Christians’ had a distinct reason for wanting this land to be theirs, and they were prepared to go to war about it…or, go to eight wars about it.

The most well known of the crusades, is perhaps the first. Fearing that the Muslims might get power hungry and invade his lands, one brave soldier stood up and asked the pope, pope Urban II for help. This man’s name was Alexius I of Constantinople. Now the pope spoke and asked for volunteers, the website history learning site UK quotes Urban II of having said, “Christians, hasten to help your brothers in the East, for they are being attacked. Arm for the rescue of Jerusalem under your captain Christ. Wear his cross as your badge. If you are killed your sins will be pardoned.[1]" This plea for help gathered many able bodied men to the cause. After taking out the Muslim defenses the Europeans eventually overtook them at Jerusalem. This was not without casualty however, many men died at the hands of the Muslims as well as to sickness. With the first of the eight wars down, there would be many more deaths to follow.


[1] The History Learning Site UK. “The First Crusade,” 2000-2009 historylearningsite.co.uk, http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cru2.htm

Benifits & Consequences of the Silk Road

The Silk Road began as a way to transport good from culture to culture, across various land masses. Imagine today having no cars, trains, buses, no plains or efficient way to get across waters…imagine this, and one may imagine the ways in which the Silk Road helped cultures trade, and exchange cultural views.

The process by which the Silk Road succeeded lasted somewhere around two thousand years, with no vehicles or anything reminiscent of modern day transport, trade became a very lengthy process. The “Silk Road” was actually a complex network of several major routes which led across Eurasia. The different routes touched on all the major cities of the time and helped goods, ideas, and technology diffuse from one culture to the next.

The road was named because one of the main goods transported across the lands was silk from China, which also contributed other goods such as bamboo, gunpowder, paper, and ginger among other items. Other main contributors were Siberia and Central Asia, India, the Middle Easy, and the Mediterranean Basin[1].

Aside from the obvious benefits of cultures beginning to expand because of a growing exchange of goods, the intermingling which occurred also began an exchange of ideas and views. For example, cultures from Rome might adopt ideas from China. Sometimes the ideas would include religious aspects, such the diffusion of Buddhism across Eurasia, other time there would be noticeable culture changes in areas such as architecture or city layout.

The Silk Road was a blessing and a curse, while there were substantial benefits to the exchange of goods, people often suffered from disease, which was also transported from area to area across the continent. Diseases such as smallpox and measles are just two examples of transported illness which devastated cultures.

I would go as far as to say that without the development of the Silk Road the World today would not be as is. This was in amazing achievement for its time which helped communities and civilizations from all over Eurasia expand their cultures in most ways, a positive fashion. With the development of a high class road network across such a large landmass, most anything became plausible, interestingly enough, our road network today work in much a similar way…

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[1] Robert Strayer, Ways of the World, a Brief Global History(Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009) p. 221.

http://www.ess.uci.edu/~oliver/silk.html

http://www.silk-road.com/artl/silkhistory.shtml