At the close of the 11th century, a military expedition group called the Crusades was founded. They were started by a group of Christians in Western Europe who wished to protest the ongoing conflicts and Muslim expansion. (The Prehistory of the Crusades, 2016). The Crusades sought to regain control over the Holy Land, which is located along the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as to restrain the spread of Islam as a faith and a culture. When the Latin Christians were driven out of their Syrian kingdom in 1291, the first organization was founded. There were many expeditions by the crusades that involved the visit to the Holy Land, the Baltic, and to Spain (The Prehistory of the Crusades, 2016). They continued the journeys mainly as military campaigns aimed slowing or halting the advancement of the Muslim Empire at the time (Maier, 2007).
All the nations of Europe had become dedicated to Christianity and, were enthusiastically embracing the notion of God. The Pope remained the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and had an enormous influence over the military movements and political decisions. There were numerous methods that the Catholic Church used to promote the crusades. They had promised that whoever would join in on the crusades would have their sins forgiven while obtaining a guaranteed place in heaven. The church also assured member of the Christian community that they would get a lot of unique benefits and personal protections if they participated in the Crusades. The priests and bishops of the Catholic Church preached across the different provinces to convince people to join in the campaigns to get rewards and opportunities that with fighting in the movement.
The Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties
When the Umayyad gained control of their empire, they continued to conquer new lands that expanded up to three continents. Their empire had expanded to the far reaches of Asia. They had also extended to the Spanish territories but came to a halt due to the Christian presence in this region. Their strongest expansion strategy was to make everyone in the conquered area speak in one language and also use a single currency. They had set up a bureaucratic government and employed the aid of Emirs who had the help of the local clans to help in the governance.
The Abbasids rose to oppose the Umayyad's lack of real leadership and their love of living wealthy. They had become too rich and were demanding more power. The Abbasids were formed to change the future of the empire (Fowden, 2004). The Abbasids killed all the caliphs of the Umayyad at a peace meeting. This was the beginning of the Abbasid Empire. They had a well established military presence that was located in strategic parts of the empire. If there were any threat of a revolt, they would be able to stop it before it could cause any damages. The Abbasids treated all people as equal, and they also allowed the service of both Christians and Jews into the administration so as to have the availability of intelligent individuals in the government.
The Abbasids had moved their capital to the city of Baghdad in the year 762 (Potts, 1993). This quickly became the trading center where the merchants from different parts of the empire could come to trade. There was an open market for the trade of precious metals and riches. This deal allowed for the development of the city and the population grew in proportion to the total of 900,000 inhabitants. In contrast, the Umayyad rule had been divided into two main branches of the entire family: The Marwanids who reigned from the year 684-750; and the Sufyanids who reigned from 661-684. The Sufyanids had centralized their authority in the town of Damascus (Potts, 1993). The Syrian army command had become their source of strength and was able to create a united empire by way of excellent control and conquering of many more provinces. They had begun an extensive Arabization program that was aimed at making Arabic the primary language. Communication was also improved by way of an elaborate post-service program that operated from Damascus to the other provincial capitals. In this period they had also established a strong architectural foothold in the region.
Importance of the Silk Roads in Central Asia on
The exchange in culture between the West and China had offered a mutual benefit and also established a current progress. Regarding technology, the Silk Road provided four imperative inventions including printing, papermaking, the compass, and gunpowder, and most importantly the breeding of silkworms and the silk spinning techniques. As part of this opportunity to establish exquisite goods, the Chinese advanced their technologies to export to them to the west. In the Han Dynasty, China enjoyed the monopoly on the silk trade, through an elaborate effort to keep the silk production technology secret (Millward, 2013 ). The printing technique was introduced in Central Asia during the Tang Dynasty. It was through the Silk Road that many of the westerners were able to access China, and through this brought with printing techniques back to Europe. During the onset of the 13th century, the Mongolian Hordes were introduced to the power of gunpowder and were able to flatten their resistance (Simpfendorfer, 2011). It was taken to be a weapon of mass destruction during that period.
References
Fowden, G. (2004). Umayyad Self-Representation. Qusayr AmraArt and the Umayyad Elite in Late Antique Syria, 291-324. doi:10.1525/california/9780520236653.003.0010
Maier, C. T. (2007). God's War: A New History of the Crusades (review). The Catholic Historical Review, 93(3), 635-636. doi:10.1353/cat.2007.0279
Millward, J. A. (2013). The technological silk road. The Silk Road, 64-86. doi:10.1093/actrade/9780199782864.003.0004
Potts, D. T. (1993). The Late Prehistoric, Protohistoric, and Early Historic periods in Eastern Arabia (ca. 5000?1200 B.C.). Journal of World Prehistory, 7(2), 163-212. doi:10.1007/bf00975450
Simpfendorfer, B. (2011). The New Silk Road: The Arab World Rediscovers China. The New Silk Road, 7-27. doi:10.1057/9780230302075_1
The Prehistory of the Crusades : Missionary War and the Baltic Crusades. (2016). doi:10.5040/9781474211123
