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The Crusades

2007-03-13T22:04:03Z

Damascusroad:

[[Image:Crusader.jpg|thumb|200px|right|A returning [[Crusader]]]]
The Crusades lasted 176 years from 1095 until 1271

The most famous military activity in the feudal period was the Crusades, a
series of wars covering nearly 200 years, from A.D. 1096-1291. Only the First
Crusade and to a lesser extent the Third Crusade were successful. One of the
main purposes of the crusades was to make [[Jerusalem]] safe for Christian
pilgrimages. At the request of the Byzantine Emperor, who wished for a
mercenary force to aid his reconquest of his lands, in 1095 [[Pope Urban II]]
called for feudal [[knights]] to retake the [[Holy Land]] from the [[Seljuk
Turks]]. The Seljuk Turks seemed almost invincible as fighters, having
conquered [[Asia Minor]] and even beating the once-mighty [[Byzantine Empire]].
The Seljuk Turks ruled from the 1000s to the 1200s, and did particularly well under one particular ruler, [[Malik Shah]], who died in 1092. But some Moslems
were unhappy with being ruled by the Turks, and once Malik died dissension in
the Islamic world grew.

The Byzantine emperor, [[Alexius Comnenus]], had inherited an empire that had
been destroyed by Seljuk and Patzinak Turks and he asked the pope for mercenary
help to defeat the Moslems. He promised a reunion of the [[Eastern Orthodox
Church]] and the [[Western Church]] and to give Byzantine lands (“[[fiefs]]”)
to victorious knights from the [[feudal]] west.

At the [[Council at Clermont]] in southern France, Pope Urban II gave a famous
speech. Promising [[absolution]] and assurance of salvation to anyone who died
in the crusade, he urged a huge crowd to protect Christian pilgrims from the
Turks. He demanded that all internal feuds end and he threatened
[[excommunication]] for anyone who continued to bicker internally. Those who
decided to fight in the crusades were said to be “taking up the cross,” because
they would stictch small crosses onto their tunics.

At first [[Peter the Hermit]] answered the call of Pope Urban and led an
unprepared group of peasants in the first mission, which failed. But news of
its failure led to renewed determination by the Christians, and a well-equipped
religious mission led by the Normans was formed. This became known as the First
Crusade.

When the western forces reached [[Constantinople]] to join with Alexius’
soldiers, the western army was almost 20,000 men. It proceeded to capture
[[Nicaea]] in 1097, and went onward to Jerusalem despite intense fighting,
mostly between the various factions within the Crusade as opposed to with any
Moslem enemies and hardship.

In 1099 the First Crusade invaded and succeeded in capturing Jerusalem, and set
up four feudal kingdoms that would remain for nearly 100 years. When they captured Jerusalem, the Crusaders massacred everyone in the city--Christian, Jew, and Muslim. Chroniclers of the time report that blodd flowed ankle-deep. Unlike Muslims of the time, the Christian conquerors showed no tolerance of other religions in their sphere of influence. The crusaders also massacred inhabitants of other
towns in the process. But it was a huge military victory and Jerusalem was
temporarily made safe for the Christian pilgrims.

A mixture of Christian spirituality and military adventure motivated the
participants in the Crusades like never before in history and perhaps never
since. Genovese Merchants participated also in the hope of undermining
Venice's trade links with Moslem Egypt. Many of the crusaders were acting to
advance the cause of Christianity. This was not necessarily true for all of
the crusaders. Criminals who fought were pardoned, and a crusader was exempt
from taxation from the time that he “took up the cross,” until he returned from
the war.

A Second Crusade in 1147-49 was a failure, owing to the French King's insistence
on betraying and attacking his only Moslem ally, Damascus. In 1187 the Muslims
captured Jerusalem under their leader [[Saladin]], and the Third Crusade
(1189-92) had the limited success of obtaining a truce from Saladin that
promised to allow Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem. That Crusade was led by
the leaders of [[France]] and the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and [[King Richard]]
the Lion-Hearted of England. The first returned home after an argument with
Richard at Acre, and the second drowned; only King Richard saw the mission
through.

Two subsequent crusades were tragic. The Fourth Crusade (1202-04) Never reached
the Holy Land and ended with the crusaders’ sacking Constantinople — a Christian
City — wounding it forever and embittering the East against the West further
than the previous Crusades had done. A Children’s Crusade (1212) consisted of
peasants leading up to a thousand children on a mission of love to Jerusalem,
but the children were captured by Christian Genovese merchants and sold as
slaves to, ironically, the Moslem powers of North Africa. The later Crusades
saw a revival in religious motivation, indeed, the Fifth Crusade and the
Crusade of St. Louis both nearly succeeded in regaining Jerusalem by way of
attacking Egypt and failed only through the greed of men like Robert of Artois.

The Crusades

2007-03-13T22:03:25Z

Damascusroad:

Communism

2007-03-13T21:58:52Z

Damascusroad:

'''Communism''' is a [[socialist]] form of government in which the state owns everything and the wealth is divided evenly among the citizens. The word has several meanings but is usually reserved for the doctrine developed by Marx and Lenin which advocated the overthrow of capitalism by the revolution of the proletariat (the social group which does not control the means of production), followed by close state control of all sectors of the economy.

The most famous government to label itself "communist" was the [[USSR]] or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; the Communist Party controlled its government from 1922 to 1991. Like many authoritarian regimes, it tried to cultivate reverence for the state as a psychological substitute for religion. (Left-wing critics of the USSR charged that it was communist in name only, and had betrayed the revolution which founded it. George Orwell expressed this viewpoint eloquently in his 1945 fable [[Animal Farm]]).

A famous quote describing Communism, attributed to Karl Marx, is "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs".

==Early Christian sharing==

As described in the Acts of the Apostles, early Christians practiced some form of ''voluntary'' sharing for the common good, which is not to be confused with forced sharing because that's called communism:

:And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (Acts 2:44-45, KJV)

:Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

:And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.

:And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,

:Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.(Acts 4:34-7, KJV)

This voluntary communal sharing among the early Christians has been described by Marxists as "communism"; Arnold Toynbee has pointed out,

:The passage in the Acts represents the philanthropy of the primitive Christian Society as flowing from a God-given grace which was the fruit of a belief in the divinity of Jesus. In other words, the charity which is here depicted as moving the primitive Christians to go—in their mutual concern for one another's welfare—to the extreme length of sharing all their worldly goods is not a mere love of Man for Man (which is the limited literal meaning of the word ‘philanthropy’), but is a spiritual relation to which God is a party as well as His human creatures. In fact, this Christian Socialism is a practical application, on the economic surface of life, of the fundamental religious truth that the brotherhood of Man is a consequence of the fatherhood of God - a truth which is driven home with special force by a religion which teaches that God is not only the father and creator of Man, but also his saviour who has been incarnate in human shape and has suffered, and triumphed over, Death.<ref>Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'', Annex II to Vol. V, Part C (i) (c) 2, p. 585, ''Marxism, Socialism, and Christianity''.</ref>

Some small Utopian experiments and intentional communities, notably the Shakers.<ref>officially: United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing</ref> have successfully practiced similar kinds of sharing, but rarely for long.

==Modern Communism==
Between 1989 and 1991, many communist governments were overthrown. The [[Berlin Wall]] in [[Germany]], which had become a symbol for the division between the West and communist states, was torn down in 1989, and there was also a large revolution against Romanian dictator [[Nicolaie Ceausescu]]. In 1991, the USSR broke up into several countries. Some of these remained under autocratic governments, but some have embraced [[democracy]].

Several countries still exist that are governed by a communist one-party system. The most famous of these is [[China]], but others (such as [[North Korea]], [[Laos]], and [[Vietnam]]) remain. There is considerable debate as to the extent to which these governments actually implement communist policies. China has not democratized (note especially the crushing of the Tiananmien Square protests in 1989), but its economic policies have been called "red capitalism" by some commentators, as there is a growing sector that behaves in a less-regulated, free market style. China's economy manufactures a wide variety of products that are sold to non-communist countries, and there is quite obvious tolerance of economic inequality, with some provinces struggling with poverty while others prosper.

==Notes and references==
<references/>

[[Category:Politics]]
[[Category:History]]