War and Crusades: The Concept of War

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Just war
Muslim invasions
The church participation
History of the crusades
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

War has been defined as a clash between two groups which involves intentional use of arms in fighting each other, mostly for political gains. War is a brutal and cruel way to solve some state problems.

For example, people have used war to determine who benefits from which resources in the country or who controls certain parts of or the entire the country.

For any place to be termed as war zone, there has to be people who have willfully and consciously decided that they are going to engage in warfare, and this has to take place in reality and not just remain as an intention that is yet to be executed. Certain questions have been raised by different scholars concerning the concept of war.

For instance, can there be a time when war is necessary and the right thing to do? Is it possible for war to be completely eradicated? In case of war in a state, what are the necessary measures to be taken by the state to ensure that its citizens enjoy normal privileges in life? In this paper, the concept of war, with specific reference to the crusades is discussed.

Just war

The just war theory is one of the renown theories about war. This theory has been supported by a number of people for example, Saint Augustine, Aquinas and many other influential historical figures.

It is believed that Augustine was the pioneer of this theory, although it is not very clear whether there were others involved in the formulation of the theory. This theory has raised many arguments both about its morality and legality.

The just war theory has three major sections. They are jus ad bellum which deals with reasons as to why going to war against another state may be justified, jus in bello which stipulates how those involved in wars should conduct themselves and jus post bellum which deals with the post war requirements.

Jus ad bellum mostly deals with the head of state. This is considered as the most important among the three sections of the just war theory. Under this principle, several things are needful before there is declaration of war by the head of state.

For instance, there must be a just cause as to why the state has opted to use war as a toll for finding solution. A just cause would be for example, defending the country against enemies who may have already struck them, defending the citizens against violation of their human rights through brutal attacks.

Some proponents of the just war theory suggest that the only just cause for any state to engage in war is because of something terribly immoral and incorrect done to them.

Other proponents of the theory suggest that the only reason a state would be justified to engage in war against another is in self defense from an attack which leads to abuse of the rights of people. These rights could be the rights of every citizen or the rights of a state.

The rights of a state are stipulated in the international law which gives every state a right to political independence. The states also enjoy the right of being in charge of its territory and any outside attempt to rob it of this right might lead to war if there is no any other peaceful means of resolving the conflict.

The invaders of another states territory hence may not enjoy any rights as the invaded territory is forced to resist their attack violently. According to Brad (2001,10), It is important for the state to have these rights as stipulated by the international law for the well being of its citizens and to promote peaceful interactions.

With these laws, the state is able to be in full control of its citizens rights and is thus able to protect them from any violation of their basic individual rights that would result from the violation of the states rights. This is because; any state government exists to take care of the citizens.

For any state to be able to enjoy the rights of international law rights of a state, they also have to satisfy some three set conditions. The first condition as noted by Brad (2001, 125) is that the state must be instituted by its citizens and acknowledged as lawful by both locally and internationally.

It must also have peace genuinely without the use of force to cause the citizens to uphold peace and must be in good relationship with other international states.

Another condition is that the state should respect other genuinely existing states and should not be involved in activities that interfere with the rights of such states. The last condition is that the state must work towards protecting the rights of its citizens.

Muslim invasions

Islam is a religion that was founded by Prophet Muhammad. After his death in 632, the Muslims were involved in a series of violent attacks on some nations in an attempt to increase their influence and territory (Riley-Smith 2005, 26). Their major targets were lands occupied by Christians and Jews.

This is because according to them, the lands occupied by these religious groups should be ruled by the Muslims. During the attacks, the Muslims were able to capture several nations and they were still trying to conquer other nations too.

The nations that were conquered by the end of 8^th century include North Africa and some parts of the Mediterranean. Spain had also been invaded and captured by the Islamic militants. The Islamic military groups further settled in Italy after capturing it and became very powerful in the region.

They controlled the Byzantine Empire and its capital. This empire was unable to defend itself fully from such invasions despite the fact that it had helped other nations like those on the shores of Mediterranean fight against the Muslims.

It is noted by (Riley-Smith 2005, 28), that the invasions of Muslims on Christian and Jewish lands continued and by the 11^th century more nations had been captured. They included what is currently known as Turkey (previously known as Asia Minor), which had a strong Christian background.

After the Islam armies captured the Roman Empire and gained much power over it, the emperor was very distressed and sought help from other Christians. He requested the Christians who resided in the western parts of Europe to help their counterparts in the Eastern region. This call for help against these invasions is what led to the rise of the crusades.

The church participation

The origin of the church is believed to be the eastern part. According to the book of Acts chapter 2, the church began after the out pouring of the Holy Spirit during the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem.

The church then spread to other areas like the west, and through the preaching of Apostle Paul, it was able to spread to Europe and other countries on the west (MIDDLETOWN BIBLE CHURCH, 2011). As time passed, the church split into the eastern and the western church.

The east was made up of the Greek Church while the west had the Latin Church. This separation caused a lot of problems in the church. A large number of the Eastern Church had also been converted by the Muslims.

The Muslims had managed to acquire a lot of the land considered Holy by the Christians through by force because naturally, the Muslims are known for their warlike tendencies. This character is still present among them today because the Muslim lands are among the hardest to evangelize.

With this being the situation then, the Eastern Church experienced a lot of attacks from the Muslims and they managed to capture parts of the eastern territory for example Syria and Egypt. They even threatened to capture Constantinople, the capital city. This is when the Eastern Church decided to ask for help from their western counterparts to stop any further destruction and acquisition of their territory by the Muslims.

Although the Christians from the west were not very willing to help those from the East, they decided to do so because of other reasons. The main reason was because the city of Jerusalem was in the East. This was very important to the West because the Christians used to go there as pilgrims.

They esteemed Holy places and objects, for example they would be content and feel happy to just hold the nails that were used to crucify Jesus Christ.

According to MIDDLETOWN BIBLE CHURCH (2011), the Christians made pilgrimage to Jerusalem regularly without any hindrance from the Muslims who controlled this land for a long time. They used the Christians pilgrims as a source of money just like they would to any other tourist who wished to visit the land.

This situation did not last for long because in the year 1071, the land of Jerusalem was captured by a different group of Muslims: The Turks. This group was very harsh towards the Christians and would not allow them to visit the Holy land. The Christians who were treated harshly informed the rest on their return from pilgrimage.

They were distressed that the land they consider holy was being controlled by the Muslims. This is what motivated them to participate whole heartedly when a call to free the holy land from Muslims was given.

They participated by offering themselves as knights to fight against the oppressive Islamic regime. They also used their wealth because most of them were very wealthy and left their families to go and wage war against the Muslims.

History of the crusades

The crusades, which have commonly been translated to mean going back to the cross, emerged as a result of the vicious attacks from the Muslim nations (Madden 2001). They were called for by the emperor of Constantinople and the response was very impressive.

The emperor did not call for them for selfish gains as has been claimed by some people but because of the urgent need to free the Christian lands that had been under siege before more harm was caused. To avoid further damage, which was also a threat to the Christian religion and culture, the crusades were necessary.

Again, Madden (2001) notes that, the crusades were not called for to try and win more converts as people have been made to believe. The Islam religion was threatening to overtake Christianity by dictating over them after capturing their nations and trying to invade more nations.

A council was held at Clermont in the year 1095 whereby there was a suggestion from the pope to try and stop any further attacks from the Islamic armies (Orend 2011). Many people responded positively to this call and vowed to recapture the lands back.

Their mission was clear; they were ready to sacrifice their lives to win back what previously belonged to them and also because of their religious convictions. This is contrary to some peoples beliefs, that the knights used this opportunity to amass wealth for themselves.

Recent studies have shown that the knights had a lot of wealth and decided to leave all their wealth and fight for what they believe in. although some people acquired wealth form the war, most of them had given up their wealth and forsaken their families to participate in the crusades.

The pope required the participants to carry out two tasks. They were to assist their Christian counterparts in the eastern parts to be free from Islamic armies. This was one of the ways they would show love to their Christian brothers. The crusaders were also to re capture Jerusalem from the Muslims.

The pope also expected them to re capture any other holy cities that were invaded. According to Orend (2011), the crusaders were able to capture Jerusalem and they believed that this was their way of showing love to God. They believed that God had given them a chance to de this despite the fact that he was able to do what they had done without them.

Although then initial call for the crusade was out of good intentions, the crusaders were not very keen to observe this call without deviating. They were involved in unethical acts like killing Jews, who they categorized together with the Muslims, and taking wealth from them.

They even tried to justify these evil acts by claiming that the money they got would be useful in funding the on going crusades. The crusaders further continued with these killings during the second crusade 50 years later despite the pleading from St. Bernard for them not to do so.

The first crusade was successful despite the crusaders lacking leaders to direct them. They went to the target territories without fear, ready to carry out the common aim. It is incredible how successful their mission was without any clear guidelines or structures.

Their success could also be attributed to the fact that the Muslims were lacking in unity and they (Muslims) under estimated the ability of the crusaders to fight back and win the war. This was however, the only crusade that was very successful.

During the first crusade, their achievement included: defeating the Muslim armies in the states of Syria, Lebanon and Israel which were governed by the Muslims. After their success in re gaining Jerusalem, most of the knights lost motivation to continue fighting.

This posed a major challenged to the crusaders because their mission was still incomplete. In an attempt to shield the holy land together with the routes that led to it, the crusaders sought to establish their own military rule in the land they had overthrown the Islamic armies.

This was not the only reason why they wanted to control these nations but they were also interested in the vast wealth that was there. They set up a Latin kingdom in Jerusalem whose ruler was Godfrey of Bouillon. They also had similar kingdoms in Syria Lebanon and Turkey.

The subsequent crusades were not so good for them because they were defeated in most of them. Particularly, the 1144 crusade led to the death of many crusaders.

This trend led to many Christians believing that probably, God was communicating something to them. They thought that God was reprimanding them for their sins; therefore they had no choice but to put up with the increasing Islamic influence.

The 12^th century crusades were very unsuccessful because of the vast problems that the crusaders had. The residents of the places where the crusaders were supposed to go and help in ridding them of Islamic influence were tired of the war that seemed unending and with no results.

They therefore sought to make peace with their enemies through compromising their faith.

They also saw that their dependence on the crusaders to provide for their needs was not a good idea because they only got such help during war. There is no evidence to show that the crusades were called for as a means of encouraging or carrying out colonization in these countries.

Conclusion

War is a very costly activity because it involves loss of lives and resources. It may also lead to the suffering and loss innocent lives. The crusades also involved a lot of losses incurred by both the crusaders and the enemy lands that were attacked in order for the holy places that had been captured by the Muslims to be regained.

Several questions concerning the crusades are raised to date. It has been debated whether or not the crusades were successful and also whether it was worthy for people too go through all that struggle that the crusaders underwent.

It has also been a concern to many whether anything valuable was accomplished through the crusades or it was an unworthy mission.

The actions of the crusaders may not attract a lot of praise from many people because they acted very unethically and to an extent against the bible teachings states that the enemies should be loved and prayed for but not attacked and destroyed (World History Project 1995). Nowhere also in the bible are Christians taught to fight for the holy land and protect it from invasions.

On the other hand, since the crusades were initiated by the popes, people who were thought to be a very important source of spiritual guidance, the crusaders can be excused for their ignorance and blind obedience.

Their action was a response to an urgent need that they had to deal with by using any means available at their disposal. It was necessary for them to wage war against their enemies to enable good to prevail and evil to be defeated.

Reference List

Brad, Roth. 2001. Governmental Illegitimacy in International Law. Oxford: Clarendon.

Madden, Thomas F. 2001. The Real History of the Crusades. ARMA. Web.

Middletown Bible Church. 2011. Learning from the church history: The Cost of the Crusades. Middletown: Middletown Bible Church. Web.

Orend, Brian. 2011. War, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Web.

Riley-Smith, Jonathan. 2005. The crusades: a history. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. Web.

World History Project. 1995. The Crusades. Web.

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