In this summary of the eight crusades that extended from 1095 to 1270 AD French historian Jacques Goffau opined that “‘arguably, the only fruit of the Crusades kept by the Christians was the apricot.” Irrespective of their outcome, the crusades remain as the most important event of the middle ages, which started from 476 AD with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and extended into the 16th century.
The Western empire had to be rebuilt in the fifth century as a result of the devastation that followed the barbarian invasions. These invasions upset the European order for the second time in the 7th and 9th centuries with the conflict against the Hungarians, Vikings and the Arabs.
[...] The power of the allied missions in the Crusades The power of the allied mission had long been considered as an alternative to the crusades but rarely as a complementary one. Though the crusade was the preferred method of conversion in the early Middle Ages, the mission gradually scored over it in the thirteenth century. The idea of a mission was born as a reaction against forced conversion and violence against the Christian ideology. The mission was not an alternative to crusades and its problems by itself, but in functioned in conjunction with them to offer a new path of conversion to "infidels." Thus, in 1216, the bishop of Acre Jacques de Vitry put in place sermons and sent out letters to obtain conversions. [...]
[...] Trade as an engine of interaction between the East and the West Trade was centered in Italy in the great trading cities such as Venice, Pisa and Genoa. The Venetian merchant Marco Polo who visited Asia in 1270 noted that the competition between these cities encouraged trade between the two parts of the Mediterranean. The best known example of this trade is undoubtedly that of the Silk Route. Silk is the first luxury product to be sent from China to the West. [...]
[...] These wars established the predominance of the West in the Mediterranean, and the opposition the crusaders encountered helped enrich their scientific, technical, economic and military knowledge by borrowing from other civilizations. C. The contribution of East to the West: Thus, although the Crusades were a major event of the Middle Ages, it was not the only type of contact between the East and the West. Indeed, the cultural and commercial exchanges have largely depended on the trade between the two civilizations. [...]
[...] The Franks of France, although rejected by the Muslims learned a lot about farming methods and techniques. Similarly, the Normans Sicilians, Arabs, Greeks, and Jews brought scholars and intellectuals to the court of Roger II and Frederick II. This contact, created a cultural and intellectual mix that enabled the West Arab-Islamic science to show its dominance over the east. B. The contribution of science in the relationship between the east and the west Prophet Muhammad reputedly said “Seek knowledge even as far as China” This thought is indicative of the Islamic thirst for Philosophical knowledge. [...]
[...] The crusades were the most important event of the middle ages in Europe. They occurred due to the ignorance of the Eastern empires. The western empires used the tool of religious conversion to establish their superiority. The propensity of the Westerners to import Eastern relics is an indication of their covetousness A. The Ignorance of the East or the demonization of Islam The Jews have an affinity with Christianity through affiliation to the Christian Bible. This however is not true of the Muslims, who owe allegiance to the Prophet Mohammed and his teaching contained in Koran. [...]
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