The First Crusade

As our class shifts toward the role and history of Christianity in the western world, I think it is important to learn about The First Crusade. The First Crusade was an attempt to recapture the city of Jerusalem. For years it had been under the control of Muslims and in the 11th century a pilgrimage became very difficult and dangerous because of Muslim soldiers. This greatly angered all Christians.

In 1095 Pope Urban II spoke at the Council of Clermont to a large group of clergy, nobles, and commoners. Dr. E.L. Skip Knox gives a summary of the pope's speech, which has been recorded differently in various sources.

"The noble race of Franks must come to the aid their fellow Christians in the East. The infidel Turks are advancing into the heart of Eastern Christendom; Christians are being oppressed and attacked; churches and holy places are being defiled. Jerusalem is groaning under the Saracen yoke. The Holy Sepulchre is in Muslim hands and has been turned into a mosque. Pilgrims are harassed and even prevented from access to the Holy Land.

The West must march to the defense of the East. All should go, rich and poor alike. The Franks must stop their internal wars and squabbles. Let them go instead against the infidel and fight a righteous war.

God himself will lead them, for they will be doing His work. There will be absolution and remission of sins for all who die in the service of Christ. Here they are poor and miserable sinners; there they will be rich and happy. Let none hesitate; they must march next summer. God wills it!" Pope Urban II


Christianity by this time had spread all across Europe and the Catholic church headed by the Pope had a great deal of power. The Crusading army grew to around 10,000 men and they gathered in Constantinople to prepare for their journey to the Holy Land.

First the army captured Nicea and after a seven month siege captured Antioch. The First Crusade came to an end with the capture of Jerusalem in 1099. It was not easy for the Crusaders. They had to travel by land and pillage/scavenge for food and supplies. After the success the conquered territory was divided up into four Latin kingdoms charged with protecting all Christians and defending them from the Muslims.

Christianity was very popular in Europe and the power of the church can be seen by the popularity of the crusades.

more information can be found at
http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm
http://crusades.boisestate.edu/1st/
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cru2.htm

We Were Not the Only Humans Facing Climate Change

One of the most pressing issues that Humanity faces today is the issue of Global climate change. However, Humanity has faced climate change before and it has had a significant impact. The human race has evolved and changed because of global climate change.

The different climates on the earth have changed, where hot climates have cooled, and cool climates have gotten warm in a matter of a few years and early man has had to adjust to these changes. For some example when wet climates dried out in a few years and massive fires happened, or floods in other regions many of animals in the regions died out, along with many early humans. When there is such a quick and large population decrease different traits become more important. It was during times like these where early hominids developed better hunting skills and tools that helped them cope with the environment that they have been given after being forced into the situations where they had to work on cooperation and innovation in order to survive. Granted, a tool might be considered a sharpened stick or a sharp rock.

These changes in climate happened many times, and every time there was an effect on early man. the biggest effect that it had on early mas was when the ice ages started happening about 2.5 million years ago, brain size of early man started to increase. According to what we know today australopithecine ancestors had the brain the size of an ape, and it did not grow for about ten thousand years. Until ice ages started to occur and then the Hominid brain grew.

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/092011.html

The Council of Nicea

In the 300's C.E., Christianity began to come about in the Roman Empire. Before, the Romans use to persecute the Christians who would go out and proclaim their devotion to the religion and not pay homage to the Roman gods. The Romans believed that they were acting as enemies to the state by not paying their dues to the government. As a result, they were punished and killed for their actions or lack thereof. But under the reign of Constantine the Great, something happened that made him convert to Christianity. He had a vision of two Greek letters that spelled out "Christ" and above in Latin it said "In His name you shall conquer." The next day Constantine faced his enemies and won the battle. After this, Constantine passed the Edict of Milan which made Christianity legal to practice. Soon after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. With the religion beginning it would run into problems such as what to believe and what to accept as true and what was not. In the year 325, a man named Arius was spreading a heresy called "Arianism" which created mass confusion on what was to be believed by the Christians at this time. At this mass meeting, Constantine called over 250 bishops from the empire to come and discuss the matters at hand. Immense debate took place between the bishops and Constantine to discuss about what was correct. As a result of the council came what to be the list that all Catholics believed in or known as the Nicene Creed. In the creed it lists the matters that took place that what the Church claims as dogmatic. The council was made to denounce Arianism and to bring about what was to be believed in.

Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

The Movement of the Continents

The land on earth is constantly moving. the continents are moving about 2 cm every year. Since the beginning of the earth, the land has been moving slowly, but continuously. 650 million years ago, the earth looked like this:










Plate tectonics under the earth's surface shift to cause the continents to move and many different environmental features to form. the earth changed a great deal throughout the years. Around 250 million years ago the continents formed a supercontinent called Pangea.










This supercontinent allowed for the distribution of different animals and plants on different continents. Pangea is the reason that people find fossils of a certain type of species on Africa and also on South America; at one point, these continents touched.

Pangea began to break up around 150 million years ago. the continents began their drift to the position that they are in today. this took millions of years. When dinosaurs existed on earth (around 66 million years ago), the planet looked like this:










The continents are not done moving. In millions of years they will look much different than they do now. It is estimated that the continents will look like the following picture when 250 million years has passed. It is believed that another supercontinent will form.











If you would like to know more about the movement of the continents over the years you should visit http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm.

Saint Paul

Paul of Tarsus, originally known as Saul, was probably the second most influental individual in the establishment of Christianity, behind only Jesus himself. He was not always a strong believer in the teachings of Jesus though. The story of Pauls conversion began on the road to Demascus, when he was still going by the name Saul. At this point Paul was actually on a mission to arrest any Christians that he could find and take them back to Jerusalem. According to Acts 9 it was on the road to Demascus when a light from heaven flashed around Paul and he fell to the ground. He then heard a voice which said "Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?"

"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked

"I am Jesus whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up an go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."

Paul was then lead into Demascus by the men that were traveling with him because he could not see. For three days he was blind and did not eat or drink anything. It was then when, according to the Acts 9, God sent a disciple named Ananias to speak to Paul. When he arrived at the house where Paul was staying Ananias placed his hands on Paul and said, "Brother Saul, theLord--Jesus, who appered to you on the road as you were coming here--has sent me so that you may see agin and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Paul, who was imediately able to see again, was baptised and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Then, according to Acts, Paul spent the next few days preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

Paul went on to author many writings that would play a major part in the establishment of the Christian religion, including many books of the Bible. This includes Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. He also established many of the beliefs that still carry Christianity today, such as the importance of celibacy and the theory of divine grace and salvation. Paul also played a key role in making Christianity a universal religion because he not only preached his beliefs to Jews and fellow Christians, but also Gentiles. He continued this preaching until his death in either 64 or 67 CE. Paul probably believed that what he was teaching was important, but I wonder if he could of even fathomed that his teaching would help lead to what is now considered one of the largest, if not the largest, religion(s) in the world?

Men's Devotional Bible- New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Corporation, 1993. Print.

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/christians/p/PaulTarsus.htm

Fun fact: the Toltec used wooden swords in battle so as not to kill their enemy

The Toltec was an ancient civilization in Mexico that gained power around 900 CE. Their capital was an urban center called Tollán, or Tula. In this city, archeologists have found remains of pyramids, ball courts, and temples.

The Toltec were superior in architecture. The name Toltec actually means “master builders” in Nahuatl. They were architecturally advanced because they had access to many materials, such as different metals and stones. Their influences were from Teotihuacán and the Olmec cultures. They built many churches and Olmec inspired pyramids, one of which was in the famous city of Cholula.

The Toltec were polytheistic, but focused their practices on Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was a deity who represented the forces of good and evil. He resided in Tula until he left in search of his homeland. In his honor, they built a large pyramid in Cholula. The Toltec also practiced human sacrifice, sun worship, and a sacred ball game called tlatchli.

Around 1000 CE, the Toltec began to expand toward the south. Eventually, they dominated the Mayan empire. It wasn’t until the thirteenth century that the empire weakened, and nomadic people called the Chichimec destroyed them.

Unfortunately, there is not an abundance of information about the Toltec on the web. However, here is the site I found most useful in my research: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0848989.html