Professor Marjorie Madigan The Crusades of the High Middle Ages (a.d. 1050-1300) was a period of conquest or rather, reconquest, of Christian lands taken from Muslims in the early Middle Ages. It is an era romanticized by fervent Christians as the time when Christianity secured its honorable status as the true religion of the world. The affect of the Crusades is still with us today. It sailed from Spain and Portugal to the Americas in the fifthteenth century aboard sailing ships carrying conquistadors who sought new territory and rich resources. They used the shield and sword of Christianity to justify a swift conquest of mass territory and the subjugation of the indigenous peoples; a mentality learned, indeed, inherited from the Crusades. Even today Christianity is the dominant religion in this region. It is an amazing accomplishment that reminds us that our actions today have affects and, moreover, consequences that shall last for generations living centuries in the future. The Muslims and the Christians, two of the world's biggest religions, which include Judaism, both believed in a monotheistic god. Muhammad (570-632), a merchant who heard God's call in the Arabian desert, considered himself to be the last prophet of God's word on Earth. Prior to Muhammad's fusion of the Arab culture, Arabs believed in polytheistic deities (Andrea 87). Muhammad believed that it was he who was ordained to preach about God's, or Allah's, "Oneness, the imminence of the Resurrection of the dead, a divine Day of Judgement, an all-consuming hell fire for the unjust and unbelievers, and a paradise of bliss for the faithful (Andrea 87)." Furthering his religious cause Muhammad established a theocratic governance in Medina, a city in the Arabic world. Next, he stirred the people into a holy war that succeeded in commanding the city of Mecca, eradicating polytheistic deities, and ruling over the Arabian tribes. When Muhammad died a caliph, or s...
