Learning with the Middle Age

The religiously enthusiastic Europe launched a series of holy wars called the crusades against the Muslims in Jerusalem with a purpose to retrieve the Holy Land, as they thought the Holy Land should be in the hands of Christians. A total of nine crusades began with Pope Urban II's influential speech calling on Christian princes in Europe to rescue the Holy Land in 1095 and ended in 1291 when Acre, the last Christian city in Palestine, was lost. In addition, there was a children crusade which ended when many children were enslaved or kidnapped in the East. It was marked as the decline of the crusade movement.

Effectively, the crusades had great impact on every level. Although costing millions of lives and finance and causing sufferings that brought by the negative contingencies of war, the crusades helped enhance the power of papacy and undermine the feudal system. It also created a constant demand in commerce and amplified intellectual development. Being in the foreign East liberated and enlightened many minds of many crusaders because at the time the East had a more advanced civilization then the West. Crusaders came home with an expended knowledge in science and other learnings and had newer ideas, which inspired many intellectuals and Western minds and finally resulted in an added fuel to the intellectual awakening in Europe.

Video: The Crusades

Even though the crusades were brutal and cost a lot of lives, it sparked a medieval awakening. The video below discusses the cause of the crusades as well as the crusades' mighty influence on the Medieval Times. The aftermath of the crusades was a huge turning point of the Dark Age from chaos to triumph.

Questions:

1. What became a problem after the Viking age?
2. Who became the principle sources of authority?
3. In order to get the knights to pay attention, what did the clergy use?
4. What did the Peace of God proclaim?
5. What was the Truce of God?
6. How many crusade were there?
7. What was the most valuable thing the Crusaders brought back to Europe?

Answers*

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• retrieve-to recover or regain. Chinese:重新得到,收回 Spanish:recuperar
• contingency-a situation that comes as a consequence of some other event. Chinese:(伴隨發生的)情況 Spanish:contingencia
• undermine-to attack by indirect, secret, or underhand means; attempt to subvert by stealth. Chinese:暗中破壞;逐漸損害 Spanish:minar, quitar