| Joelcool7 said: Who are you kidding using the Crusades. The whole reason the Crusades happened was because Muslim armies conquered it from Christians in 1076. Muslims were threatening to capture Constantinople. Christians were being massacred and persecuted by the Muslim over lords who had taken over Israel and Jerusalem. When the Muslims moved towards Constantinople in 1097 over 10,000 Christians mounted in Constantinople to take back the holy land from the oppressive Muslim's. The first Crusade managed to recapture Israel in 1099. The Crusaders butchered everyone within the walls, pretty much. However during that time period the Muslim armies did similiar acts of genocide against the Christians. During the four crusades horrible acts of genocide and war crimes were commited by the Muslims and the Christian's alike. Muslims killed and persecuted thousands of Christians if not millions, this was the reason the Crusades happened to begin with. If Muslim armies hadn't taken over Jerusalem in the first place none of the crusades would have occured. It was Islamist oppression that sparked the Crusades. Though I agree the Crusaders did horrible things the Muslims weren't much better. Also during the second Crusade Muslims were allowed to visit Jerusalem and worship in their mosques. Saladin also took all those who couldn't afford a ransom into slavery when he took Jerusalem. In the end Christianity matured. Islam did not. The Bible (New Testiment) preaches peace and love with all non-believers where as the Qur'an tells Muslims to kill infidel. Their is a drastic difference between the two faiths. Today Muslim countries force Christian's to convert or be killed and kill any Muslim's who convert to Christianity. Islam is stuck in the dark ages (In the Middle East), the rest of the world has matured. Islam as a religion is extremely oppressive. I love my Muslim brothers but what the Muslim Governments are doing in the middle east and north africa is unnacceptable. |
Actually, the crusades weren't even like that.
A funny example that happens in Civ 4: Beyond the Sword is that Vatican City is added as a wonder. It works as a UN for anyone who has that relgion. That's essentialy what the Vatican was.
Back then, when you were an invading army in a war you ALWAYS gained economically. When you were a defendeding army you ALWAYS lost.
Even when you "won" a war by pushing back invaders... in reality, they gained money, and your economy got devestated.
Why? Lack of Potatoes. Seriously. Whenver there was a War, you would load your men up with enough food to make the jounary.
Say for example you are in England and your building up a huge army to crush France. You load up your army with food, send them off to france, and by the time they got to france, their food supply ran out. So they're in Normandy looting the countryside for grain, and the peasents starve and lose all their food and whatever nice stuff they have. Your crime goes down because all of the unemployed people have been set to war to earn a quick buck and steal whatever wasn't nailed down, and your economy gets a boom in demand for weapons and such.
So now your in Paris. You need to raise up an army to fight against them. You give them food and send them out. Their food runs out/or spoils by the time they get to Normandy soo..... they have to pillage the countryside for food. Probably stealing whatever was nailed down.
If the attackers are repelled they just retreat back to England... with everything they took that wasn't nailed down! Meanwhile your population in the invaded areas has dropped by 66% and the local economies are ruined.
As such Europeon Nations were in a constant state of "I need to invade them before they invade me!"
Enter the Catholic Church, and the Crusades... the perfect way to export all the unemployed into non-allied countries to kill everything their and loot everything that wasn't nailed down. Throw in the added religious justification so people will be willing to travel that far... and there you go.
Problem solved.
Edit: Oh and why lack of potatoes was the answer... is that potatoes can last forever in the ground, but once picked go bad quickly, which meant that soldiers couldn't use them for war rations and food supplies.
Which meant after their introduction from America I wanna say... every farmer planted enough Potatoes to make sure that even in times of war they would have food.
