Why did Pope Urban II initiate the first crusade?

Question

Why did Pope Urban II initiate the first crusade? Please be specific in answer, I know he did it to capture the holy land but why? Was their a hidden agenda. I would appreciate it if you also provided a source.

Answer 1

Common enemy.

Answer 2

Pope Urban The Second

Answer 3

Pope Urban had received a letter - call for help from the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus. The Seljuk Turks (Muslims) had taken over Anatolia (present day Turkey) in the 1070s after the Battle of Manzikert and by the 1090s were threatening Constantinople.
In response, Urban called for the First Crusade
on November 27, 1095.
He had several agendas:
1. He wanted to expand the influence of the Roman church to the eastern Mediterranean.
2. He wanted unmolested travel for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land.
3. He had a problem at home in Europe with knights constantly fighting amongst each other - but also attacking priests, nuns, and church property. Promising these ruffians forgiveness of their sins (rape, murder, stealing) if they went on the crusade, the pope would be well rid of these men fighting far away against Muslim Turks or Arabs. It was a win win situation for the Church.

Answer 4

Emperor Alexius I asked Pope Urban II for help in defeating the seljuk turks. Pope Urban II called upon all Christians to join the war by saying that it was God's will, and that it will be a full penance. ^um, i'm not good in translating it in english

Answer 5

Muslim armies had conquered much of northern Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Spain, which had been some of the most heavily Christian areas in the world.

Thousands, and possibly millions, of Christians died during this drive to eventually bring the entire world under Islam.

The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II to check the advance of the Muslims and regain control of the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

I am sure that some atrocities were committed by both sides during this war but by most people's judgment this was a just war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Crusade

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

"The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II with the dual goals of liberating the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslims and freeing the Eastern Christians from Muslim rule. What started as an appeal by Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos for western mercenaries to fight the Turks in Anatolia quickly turned into a wholesale Western migration and conquest of territory outside of Europe."
The beginnings of the Crusades in general, and of the First Crusade in particular, started with events earlier in the Middle Ages: The breakdown of the Frankish Empire (whose power had been consolidated under Charlemagne) in previous centuries, "combined with the relative stability of European borders after the Christianization of the Vikings and Magyars, gave rise to an entire class of warriors who now had little to do but fight among themselves.
"By the early 8th century, [the Muslim Conquest under the] Umayyad Caliphate had rapidly captured North Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Spain from a predominantly Christian Byzantine Empire. During the 9th century, the Reconquista picked up an ideological potency that is considered to be the first example of a concerted "Christian" effort to recapture territory, seen as lost to Muslims, as part of the expansion efforts of the Christian kingdoms along the Bay of Biscay. Spanish kingdoms, knightly orders and mercenaries began to mobilize from across Europe for the fight against the surviving and predominantly Moorish Umayyad caliphate at Cordoba.
"Other [Muslim] kingdoms emerging from the collapse of the Umayyads in the 8th century, had entered Italy in the 9th century. The [Muslim] state that arose in the region, weakened by dynastic struggles, became prey to the Normans capturing Sicily by 1091. Pisa, Genoa, and Aragon began to battle other Muslim kingdoms for control of the Mediterranean," exemplified by the battles at Mallorca and Sardinia.
All of these events over time emerged in the minds of Christian Europeans as an ideology that supported a Holy War against the Muslims. And this idea gained acceptability among medieval European secular and religious powers, as well as the public in general, with the recent military successes of European kingdoms along the Mediterranean against the Moors. This gave rise to the emerging political will, a militarization of Christendom, which saw the union of Christian kingdoms under Papal guidance for the first time (in the High Middle Ages) and the creation of a Christian army to fight the Muslims.
"In 1074, Pope Gregory VII called for the 'milites Christi' ("soldiers of Christ") to go to the aid of the Byzantine Empire in the east. The Byzantines had suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert three years previously. This call, while largely ignored and even opposed, combined with the large numbers of pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the 11th century, focused a great deal of attention on the east. Exhortations by monks such as Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless, which spread reports of Muslims abusing Christian pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem and other Middle Eastern holy sites, further stoked the crusading zeal. It was Pope Urban II who first disseminated to the general public the idea of a Crusade to capture the Holy Land. Upon hearing his dramatic and inspiring speech, the nobles and clergy in attendance began to chant the famous words, Deus vult! ("God wills it!")
"Both knights and peasants from many nations of Western Europe took part in the battles that led to the capture of Jerusalem in July 1099, establishing the Kingdom of Jerusalem and other Crusader states.
"Although these gains lasted for less than two hundred years, the First Crusade was a major turning point in the expansion of Western power, as well as the first major step towards reopening international trade in the West since the fall of the Western Roman Empire."
I got this information largely from wikipedia articles on Pope Urban II and the first crusade.