University:
Amherst College
Course:
HIST 116 | The Global Medieval World
Academic year:

2022
Views:

183

Pages:

3
Author:

Ally Sweeney

Medieval Europe The Beginning of the Crusades The Crusades are often looked upon as an epitome of Holy War. Known to the Muslim inhabitants of the Holy Land at the time as the “Franj invasions,” the Crusades were far more complex than their general portrayal, beiong both deeply political and multifaceted, as well as religious. However, one of their most lasting impacts was the way they contributed to a deeper formation of common European identity, bounded in ‘Christendom.’ Avner Falk, a historian who emphasizes language, writes that, “for the Arabs and Muslims, all European Christians were the infidel franj.”1 Just as the European crusaders thought of their varied enemies as ‘Saracens’ and the embodiment of evil, they also began to think of themselves in more unified terminology—as Franks in fact, though they hailed from different parts of the continent.2 They used “the terms of race and blood to describe their identity,” calling themselves the descendants of Christian ancestors, and acquiring a notion of Christendom.3 Falk traces the history of ethnocentrism in numerous societies before focusing on his history of the crusades. He makes the argument that ethnocentrism has in fact been a defining feature for nearly every historical civilization, as well as the organized wars in which they engaged.4 “Psychologically, each human group needs an enemy, a foreign group against which it can define its own identity and Falk, 71. Falk, 88. 3 Bartlett, 252. 4 Falk, 1-27. 1 2 maintain its internal cohesion.”5 Political science is no stranger to the power of this concept of ‘us and them.’ Bo Stråth, a European historian and political scientist argues that much of Europe’s history has involved its distancing itself from its Asian origins, and a process of occidentalisation.6 Such a process necessitates the existence of an ‘other,’ which the crusades undoubtedly provided. This isn’t to say that the European powers of the day—the Papacy, the Emperor—were engaged in some sort of high level conspiracy to ‘westernize’ themselves by emphasizing the existence of an other; this is a far more structural argument than that. However, the European peoples themselves were certainly aware of, and active participants in this evolving and changing identity. The overarching religious themes and elements used to justify and give incentive for participating in the crusades gave them a far more powerful unifying factor for European identity than mere political confrontation could have. Sources: 5 6 Falk, 27. Stråth, 35. Falk, Avner. Franks and Saracens: Reality and Fantasy in the Crusades. London: Karnack Books, 2010. Bartlett, Robert. The Making of Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Kostick, Conor. Seige of Jerusalem: Crusade and Conquest in 1099. London; Continuum, 2009. Bo Stråth, “Belonging and European Identity,” in Identity, Belonging, and Migration, ed. Gerard Delanty, et al. (Cambridge: Liverpool University Press, 2008).

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