Question 1
What were the reasons for and consequences for the first crusade?

The first crusade was in 1096-99. The mean reasoning for the first crusade was to attempt to re-capture Jerusalem, after the Muslims captured it in 1076. The Muslims had made life very hard for Christian to live in the city. Any who would want to pay a pilgrimage to the city faced vary hard times. Alexius I of Constantinople had feared that his country would also fall to the Muslims so he urged Pope Urban II to send help. The pope had promised men that would fight that; anyone who fought or died in The Crusade was going to have his sins forgiven by god. After this, several large armies of volunteers marched into the Holy land. The First Crusade ended in victory in 1099, however was not without any consequences.

As the soldiers were unable to cross the Mediterranean Sea due to the fact that Muslims controlled the Eastern parts, solders then had to march over trusses land and through high temperatures then marching through thick snow covered mountains to reach the holy land. This was not an easy route. The long painful journey meant that food and water had become scares and had eventually run out for the soldiers. This resulted then men having to pillage villages for resources to take with them. By the soldiers taking food from small villages meant that buying a selling of foods and good would be low and many people and families would go hungry and have no money. As this was the start of four major crusades of the time, it meant that it kept all of Europe in a tumult for two centuries and cost the country several millions of lives. As was common for diseases to spread rapidly within the solders due to the men being weakened by the long journey, and from drinking dirty water. Heat stroke played a major role in losing lives on the journey also.

Question 2
Historians claim that Charlemagne is significant to the emergence of particular features that eventually will influence modem Europe, why? Charlemagne was a very impressionable person of power in the 8th Century. After Charlemagne’s father’s death, the kingdom was divided between his two sons. Charlemagne’s brother suddenly died in 771, Charlemagne became a sole ruler. He inherited the Frankish throne in 768 CE and ruled for 46 years. He encouraged art, culture and education throughout his rain. Charlemagne’s reforms were the spark that ignited Europe’s cultural rebirth. Charlemagne was determined to strengthen his realm and to bring order to Europe. In 772 he launched a 30-year military campaign which most he lead in person, was to accomplish this objective. By 800 Charlemagne was the undisputed ruler of Western Europe. By establishing a central government over Western Europe, Charlemagne