PolledHistory - Friday Special: The First Crusade

 Hello! 

636 AD, Jerusalem. The Rashidun Arabs, a recently formed empire and the first islamic empire, lanches a siege of the great city which has been under Roman control for about seven centuries at the time. Now, it was under the control of the Eastern Roman Empire, exhausted after wars. The Arabs gained Jerusalem, a symbolic loss to the European nations at the time.

Arab control over Jerusalem would remain virtually undisturbed, and the Christian Europeans saw this as a big loss. Jerusalem was seen as a holy city and was very important. It was a holy city to three major religions and in the crossroads of three continents. 

In 1095 AD, the medieval European kingdoms have begin to want to recapture Jerusalem. The Catholic Church wanted to recapture Jerusalem and the land of Israel. Pope Urban II (at the time, there was only two main churches, the Roman Catholic and Eastern, Byzantine one) has proposed this idea.

And suddenly they all think that God wills that reclamation, so they organize an attack. But it was likely Urban II's speech had some deceit. He said that the Muslims were comitting atrocious things to the Jews in Jeerusalem, but they have been occupying Jerusalem for four centuries, and there was little rebellion. 

It could also be because the Eastern Roman emperor Alexios Konmenos had asked for help. The Seljuk Torks from the east had migrated, and dealt great damage. The pope, however, wasn't the sole pope. The pope wanted to unite the entirety of Christianity, especially in Europe to fight the Muslims.

We are unsure if the Crusades is really biblically correct, especially because it was a war after all. Urban II collected people, especially military ones, and they were attracted to join. The pope's motivations though questionable and probably biblically unstable, took the attention of people throughout the continent. 

A person called Peter the Hermit by this time was going around, collecting people to join the crusade, even weak, incompetent, or poor people. The crusade was very ununited because of the political situation

 The french group would be lead by Walter Sans Avoir and left first for Hungary. The crusaders waiting there were easy to grumble and rebellious, which sabotaged the plan. The second group of the crusade from Germany was lead by a man named Count Emicho. They also joined the crusade. However, they sort of did the opposite thing thta they should do and targeted the Jews rather than the targets (the Jews in Germany were denied from entry, but they went anyway ans tried to attack the Hungarian capital but failed. Already, the first crusade, even before their arrival in Jerusalem, was a mess. This ended up in the failure of Emicho's plan.

Meanwhile, Peter the Hermit was collecting mostly peasants, even including women and children. Peter went through the Hungarian cities but later they battled the Hungarians and entered the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines did not want anything disastrous to their own empire and they made sure it was orderly and nothign would go wrong. The crusaders tried to attack the Byzantine troops and arrived in Belgrade and then wanted to attack the city of Nis but were supposed to then sent to Constantinople, but then attacked Nis anyway, but the Byzantines decided to attack the crusaders and the crusaders were defeated, with a quarter of the army dead. Then, they met with the french group in Constantinople and also with Konmenos. 

They then went from Constantinople into Anatolia, pillaging towns that was, at the time, under Seljuk control, though the Byzantiens wanted to reclaim them. The crusaders even attacked the Christian cities in Anatolia. They continued pillaging and attacking cities. The Turks then threateaned the poor group and forced them to convert to Islam or they would die. Some accepted but some didn't. But then they heard news the German group had captured the Seljuk capital in Anatolia. 

By that time, the remaining amount of crusaders were twenty thousand. The progress made had already looked like a failure. Then, the real crusaders, knights, came to reinforce the army, and the crusaders were now waiting in Constantinople. There were five smaller armies to make up the large crusader army, and they came from throughout Europe to Constantinople and then to Jerusalem. The five armies managed to arrive in Constantinople. 

After lots of diplomacy and trouble, the emperor Alexios managed to transport the armies into Anatolia and they would go to Jerusalem to reclaim the land, first crossing the Bosphorus into Anatolia and into enemy terrirory. 

They went through Anatolia, but faced little opposition. This was suspicious. Where was the enemy response? They decided to head to Nicaea since it was strategically, religiously, and politically important. Nicaea was easily taken because of the lack of soldiers. The Turks finally arrived by that time, with lots of horse archers, but then returned once they took sight of the sheer number of crusaders, and it was considered a crusader victory. 

Crusade vs Turks: 1-0.

They realized that Nicaea was being resupplied by water but they didn't have any navy, so the crusaders could not stop the resupply and the siege would not end. The Eastern Romans (byzantines) helped to take over Nicaea and the crusaders managed to take the city. Nicaea had been retaken. The crusaders didn't know who should capture it, but suddenly the Byzantines did. Konmenos knew the crusaders would mess up the old city if they captured it.

But why ahven't the Turks finally fought with a large thing yet? Well, the turkish commander thought the crusaders would just end up killing themselves because of how much trouble they made. So, the crusaders' incompetence became, in a way, a good thing. The Muslims were also very disunited and had many wars, so the Seljuk commander thought the crusaders didn't matter. Oh yes, the crusade of peasants had completely failed because of their incompetence and eventual downfall. The crusade army had basically been renewed to a stronger force. But the peasant crusade was not completely useless.

The crusaders continued to advance, but then they met the Turks again. The crusaders were actually heroic  in this battle, though unready. They managed to keep strong and basically withstand tons of arrows. The turks finally lost after hours, and the Turks lost in the Battle of Dorylaeum.

Crusade vs Turks: 2-0.

After this, they began a march to the city of Syrian Antioch. The Turks, though defetaed, were still powerful and used a scorched earth tactic - they would take the resources of the land to starve the advancing army of crusaders. They had two options after the gruelling march through a bad land: they could advance to Antioch through the Taurus mountains or not. Most of the crusaders chose to go around them, but some went through them. 

Those who went through the mountains then attacked Tarsus, but had too little men. He had a shrewd idea: he would look like he was preparing a siege so the Turks may be deceived. The Turks believed that and actually fled. Those crusaders (the one going that path) began to fit each other, and one of the leaders, Baldwin, abandoned the crusade and then declared himself the king of Edessa. 

Then Tancred (the other leader on that mountain path) joined with the non mountainous people with the more soldiers. Then they attacked the glorious city of Antioch, but the walls were too strong and too large. They decided only to block most gates. This siege plan didn't work, and the crusaders sent so,e of their men to forage. But when they foraged, they saw a large Seljuk army. Then ensued a battle which had no clear victory, but the Seljuk commander decided to leave after the battle, so the crusaders were now at least not threateaned, but their food was lost.

The siege of Antioch was still not being so succesful. Another Turkish army came but it was thwarted. But the siege continued, and then another Turkish army came, a huge one. But suddenly, they found one gate commander who he bribed and the crusader army entered Antioch. They have captured Antioch and wwnt seriously far into the Near East.

However, the Turkish army had came, the city was lacking of food, and the city wasn't fully captured. The turks decided just to siege the city. The Crusaders then attempted to attack the turks. Soldiers said that they had some kind of divine revelation, and the crusaders actually.... won.

Crusadrrs vs Turks: 3-0.

The crusaders continued south and decided to finally capture Jerusalem. And they have finally arrived, with lots of losses. The crusaders could not maintain or start a siege of Jerusalem. But suddenly a fleet of ships from the city of Genoa came, and in 1099, Jerusalem began to be assaulted and besieged. Eventually, they entered the city. Jerusalem had been taken. The First Crusade is complete.

Crusaders vs Turks: 4-0.

That's all for today!