The First Crusades

Ernest Hemingway once said, “Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.” When groups of Christians responded to Pope Urban II’s plea to go to war against the harmonious Muslims, they were starting a series of wars that would destroy both sides. The First Crusade, which took place during the late eleventh century CE, was an “endeavor” which Christians set out on a religious pilgrimage led by Pope Urban II. This endeavor was supposedly backed by God, in which they made an attempt to exterminate all other religions, specifically Islam and Judaism. Although the Crusades started as a widespread pilgrimage, a commandment from God to the Catholic Church, it ended as a military expedition to take money, land,