The Crusades: 1
17/06/2020 THE CRUSADES: 1. AN ALTERNATE VIEW. U3A Stonnington. 17th JUNE 2020. (Albert Isaacs) INTRODUCTION: An 1850 painting by A MODERN PERSPECTIVE ON J. J. Dassy, depicting the Siege of Antioch, THE CRUSADES. during the First Crusade, 1095. 1 2 WHAT WERE THE CRUSADES? According to the Oxford Dictionary, the first definition of the word “crusader” Today, most people only know of the Crusades fought in the Middle East (and is: a fighter in the medieval Crusades. The Oxford Dictionary’s second in Europe by Crusaders on their way to the Middle East). However, there definition is: a person who campaigns vigorously for political, social, or were Crusades prior to 1095, the time of the First Crusade in the Levant. religious change; a campaigner. By the 20th century, the second definition was the commonly accepted meaning, and many people using the word Any battle designed to convert so-called heathens to Christianity was usually didn’t give a thought to the word’s derivation in conflict. described as a Crusade and, as we’ll discuss later, there were many such fights in Europe prior to 1095. Even so, this presentation will mainly concentrate on In September 2001, just after 9/11 and on the eve of the Second Iraqi War, the Middle East. President George W. Bush declared: “a crusade against terrorism”. Most European encounters continued after the last battles in the Holy Land had commentators believe that President concluded. In fact, it could be argued that the Inquisitions, established by the Bush naively meant this within the Catholic Church in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, etc., were really continuations of context of the second definition of the the Crusades ().
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