Crusades Dbq

When Holy Crusades are mentioned many people will go straight to the epic encounters over the Holy Land of Jerusalem against the Muslim Forces but that was not the only crusade to be called by the Papacy. The Baltic Crusades also known as the Northern Crusades was the Catholic Churches push to clear out the pagan ideology from Northern Europe once and for all. This crusade was called to begin by Pope Celestine III (1106 – 1198) in 1195 but the local Christian states were already fighting to suppress the pagan forces for some time before the call to arms. With the Catholic Churches official call to war many mercenaries, soldiers, and the elite Catholic Christian military orders answered the call to protect the borders of the Christian Europe
The purpose of the crusades to be called was to push out or convert the pagan Baltic, Finnie and Slavic tribes in the area so the larger Europe nations like German could expand into the area. The church told the populace the crusades were called to protect the Christian borders but its true goal was to land grab and expand. Many European states like Sweden, German, Finland and the Holy Roman Empire would fight during this long crusade against the pagan threats. Leading the charge for the crusaders was a religious military order known as the Teutonic Order of German. This order may not have achieved much during the Holy Crusades in the Middle East but the Northern Crusades became their proving ground to make a name for themselves. The Teutonic Knights were given their military order status by Pope Celestine III and this helped them become a key role in the Baltic Crusades. Unlike other crusades this one was a straight forward conquest of pagan lands that the church approved the Christian states to
This order was originally formed to help Christians that were on their pilgrimage to the Holy Land and they were also charged with establishing hospitals along the path. During the Holy Crusades the Teutonic did not really achieve much besides taking care of their hospitals which helped them get on the path for renown and glory when the chance came up for them to prove themselves in the Northern Crusades. The start of the Order was a bit rocky to say the least. Once the crusaders were defeated in the Holy Land in 1211 they set off to find a new home for themselves and that was in the Kingdom of Hungry, unfortunately they were kicked out of this country too due to the Order aligning with the Papacy over the King of Hungry. This would see them go to Poland and carve out a chuck of land for themselves which would become Monastic State of the Teutonic