The Crusades- Share your view

why exactly did pope Urban call the first crusade, what were his motives, was it for spiritual or secular gains

The initial mission of the crusades was laudable-- Pilgrims were being harassed and based on the current mindset of the time they believed it was God’s will. But like so many times man corrupts.

One huge fall out was the devastation of the Byz empire. Had the crusaders joined up with Byz and fought the turks and other Arab states the world would be much different now.

Instead the crusaders couldn't look past the small differences they had, sacked cons. and devastated their Armies in modern day turkey.

Without the Byz protecting southern and Eastern Europe the Turks swept in and eventually got all the way to Vienna. I would argue that the Ottoman wars were simply a continuation of the crusades

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna

The Siege of Vienna in 1529 was the first attempt by the Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman the Magnificent, to capture the city of Vienna, Austria. The siege signalled the pinnacle of the Ottoman Empire's power, the maximum extent of Ottoman expansion in central Europe (see Ottoman wars in Europe), and was the result of a long-lasting rivalry with Europe. Thereafter, 150 years of bitter military tension and reciprocal attacks ensued, culminating in the Battle of Vienna in 1683, which marked the start of the Great Turkish War by European powers to remove the Ottoman presence.

The Ottoman failure to capture Vienna in 1529 turned the tide against almost a century of unchecked conquest throughout eastern and central Europe, which had previously claimed Southeastern Hungary as a vassal state in the wake of the Battle of Mohács. According to Toynbee, "The failure of the first [siege of Vienna] brought to a standstill the tide of Ottoman conquest which had been flooding up the Danube Valley for a century past."^[5]

There is speculation by some historians that Suleiman's main objective in 1529 was in actuality to reassert Ottoman control over Hungary, the western part of which still held out as an independent monarchy known as Royal Hungary. The decision to attack Vienna after such a long interval in Suleiman's European campaign is viewed as an opportunistic manoeuvre after his decisive victory in Hungary. Other scholars theorize that the suppression of Hungary simply marked the prologue to a later, premeditated invasion of Europe.^[6]

¹⁶⁸³

^{The Turks lost at least 15,000 men dead and wounded in the fighting, plus at least 5,000 men captured and all cannons, compared to approximately 4,500 dead and wounded for the Habsburg-Polish forces.}

^{The loot that fell into the hands of the Holy League troops and the Viennese was as huge as their relief, as King Sobieski vividly described in a letter to his wife a few days after the battle:}

^{Ours are treasures unheard of ... tents, sheep, cattle and no small number of camels ... it is victory as nobody ever knew of, the enemy now completely ruined, everything lost for them. They must run for their sheer lives ... Commander Starhemberg hugged and kissed me and called me his savior.[citation needed]}

^{This emotional expression of gratitude did not distract Starhemberg from ordering the immediate repair of Vienna's severely damaged fortifications, guarding against a possible Turkish counter-strike. However, this proved unnecessary. The victory at Vienna set the stage for Prince Eugene of Savoy's re-conquering of Hungary and (temporarily) some of the Balkan countries within the following years. Austria signed a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire in 1699.}

^{Long before that, the Turks had disposed of their defeated commander. On 25 December 1683, Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed in Belgrade (in the approved manner, by strangulation with a silk rope pulled by several men on each end) by order of the commander of the Janissaries.}

^{So IMO the Crusades didn't end until nearly 1700}