Crusades

• started around the 11 century with the taking of Jerusalem, failed from a military standpoint because many died before they reached Jerusalem
• France had become a kingdom under the Capetian dynasty who had close ties with the Church.
• There was a lot of French art and architecture coming over to England
• Spain, in the 8th century was occupied by the Moores, from Morroco where Islam was prevalent. For 7 hundred years they ruled Spain.
• Library of Alexandria burned and Constantinople was taken over by Islam. All the knowledge and information was erased from history. As North Africa was colonized by the Muslims the knowledge base of Europe was minimalized. The Crusades did not make the situation better. The crusades turned the Muslims into the enemy, unnecessarily.
• In the end Europe went into the dark ages, and the Islamic world went through a renaissance
• They had all the knowledge of the eastern world.
• works of Aristotle (most important
• Fear of judgement day was rising.
• The French lead a crusade into Moorish Spain and when they got their they saw it was a thriving culture and they had Aristotle. Europeans realized they have been losing knowledge of the Greek Philosophers while in Spain they had a lot of libraries packed with them.
• Why is Aristotle so important?
• Aristotle seemed to have the answer to everything split into: practical, productive, and theoretical. He came up with a system of knowledge. The crusades kept Aristotle out of Europe but when they were over his information got into Europe. Aristotle demonstrated that logic defeats superstition. It is called a Dialectic.