the original cause of the Crusades was...?

Question

the capture of jerusalem by the arabs
arab conquests in western europe
turkish conquests of mesopotamia and syria
-or- an appeal from the byzantine emperor for help against the turks

Answer 1

Of the four you give, the last, but also Jerusalem was now under the control of the Seljukid Turks, rather new converts to Islam, who gave Christian Pilgrims a harder time than they had had before.

Answer 2

The Turks and other allied "Muslim" nations were advancing against Christian states in the middle east (particularly the Byzantines), and the European powers saw that once the Christian presence in the holy land and surrounding territories had been eliminated, nothing would stand in the way of a direct route to Europe itself.

One of the only options, and possibly the best option, was to declare war and stop the Muslims from reaching Europe and other "civilised" countries. Although the crusaders failed to eliminate Islam and capture the Holy Land, they stopped it from pushing into Eurasia and Europe itself.

The only real "conversion crusade" (many people say the entire point of the crusades was to spread Christianity) was the children's crusade, in which a bunch of youths banded together and went on the great adventure!

Too bad they all died or were sold into slavery.

As the events of today unfold, I think its clear that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is simply a continuation of the Crusades; the war left undone a thousand years ago.

Answer 3

an appeal from the byzantine emperor for help against the turks

Read "Crusade The Illustrated History" if you want to learn more. It gives a good overview of the events and is the collaberated work of several historians each focusing on a certain aspect.

Answer 4

Though it is impossible to pin point any one reason, the one used as a reason by the Pope was that the Arabs had stopped allowing Christian pilgrims to visit the Holy Land, though the plight of the Byzantines may have affected the decision.

On a more personal level, many men went to fight as they believed it was a shortcut to heaven, or simply believed it was the right thing to do. However, by asking for the Crusade, the Pope had made the Holy Land, and its inhabitants, free game for the powers of Christendom. Fuelled by greed, they could conquer, pillage and massacre as much as they wanted - unfortunately this was the motivation for many. Who won? Though they were granted access to Jerusalem by Saladin, the Holy Land remained in Muslim hands, and the people of Islam greatly superior to the Christians for centuries afterwards.

Answer 5

None of the above?

The Crusades was a conquest to exterminate Christianity (and not the other way around as most people still believe)

However, the original goal was to recapture Jerusalem according to wikipedia

Answer 6

more of the last one... the byzantine emperor asked for help from the pope and the pope agreed to help to prevent the turks from moving further west and eventually conquering the rest of europe

Answer 7

The last one

Answer 8

I always thought they were to force the crusader's choice of religion on people.

Answer 9

type it into google