Its hard to say what I think the most important thing was that we learned about this year. If I have to choose I think it would have to be the importance of the Crusades and their failures. This is very important to what is going on in our world today along with very important to our faith.
The only crusade to really accomplish anything at all was the Ist crusade. The First Crusade was first launched by Pope Urban in 1096 when Alexius called on him for help. The Crusade was created in order to regain Jerusalem from the infidels, or the Muslims, who had captured it from the Eastern Christians. The idea was to free the Eastern Christians from Islamic rule, but it turned into much more.
The Second Crusade began to recapture the city of Edessa in 1147. It was called for by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and led by two kings. Louis VII, King of France, and Conrad III, the German Emperor, led this crusade. They so poorly managed this crusade that nothing at all was accomplished.
During the Third Crusade Saladin, the Muslim leader, recaptured Jerusalem. This led to the German Emperor Frederick I, called "Barbarossa" {Red Beard}; Philip Augustus, King of France; and King Richard the Lion-Hearted of England to become leaders of the Third Crusade. This Crusade also ended in failure.
So I guess one could say another event that showed the failures was the fact that more than one crusade was needed. The First Crusade was the only Crusade that actually succeeded. After that there were only failures and this led to even more failures and many more deaths.In conclusion, one of the biggest events, that led to failures, was the fact that they had recapture city's so many times. After the First Crusade failures were unstoppable. Nothing truly was accomplished after this and many lives were lost.
This is important in my opinion because it just shows how absolutely no one can say that the Christians were persecuting the Muslims. The crusades were a failure, something I would have never found out unless we had studied it in class. I guess the reason I think this is so important is that it just shows how without really looking into something we can just believe it, I believed for the longest time that the Crusades were grand and glorious and much was accomplished...little did I know.
