Fall of Rome Essay

Submitted By obsidianoceans
Words: 732
Pages: 3

Power, Religion, and Conflict Go Hand in Hand

The destruction of the Western portion of the Roman Empire was much like a human stepping on a thriving ant hill. It scattered the Romans throughout the land, but luckily, the Catholic Church was there to regroup them. As most, if not all Romans were Catholic, their first cry for help went out to God. Apparently, it was answered by the surprising order that was withheld throughout the Church. That was the Roman peoples only tiny sliver of organization in their otherwise cluttered lifestyle. Soon enough, the Church was the number one thing in most people’s lives. With that, their heads were bound to become a bit inflated; and that they did, to an incredible extent. The Muslims were thriving while the Romans were struggling to rebuild, and they spread a great deal. The extent of their reign was from as far as Spain to Persia, both west and east. They came up with a great deal of things, including the building blocks of Algebra and understanding the connection of the brain and eyes, which eventually led to the basic principles of the camera. Plenty of the Muslim contributions were used in later times, and the book of Algebra from Al-Khwarizmi became a standard in European universities. Which is fairly ironic, considering a good majority of Roman Catholics saw themselves as superior to Muslims. Superior may be a bit of an understatement, considering the things the Roman Catholics justified in the name of God. The Roman Catholics saw the place Jesus was crucified, Jerusalem, as incredibly holy and they were very upset that the Muslims had control over it. Believing that it was God’s will, about 30,000 Romans left for Jerusalem. Only 4,000 were knights, the others being peasants, and even women and priests traveled with the men. The first Crusade was the first and only victory for the Roman Catholics (Crusaders). They were terribly cruel to Muslims and burned Jerusalem, but they gathered a fair amount of “Holy Land” and set up their own systems there. That one victory was nothing if not detrimental to the plan to conquer the rest of the holy land. Arrogance soon flooded the mind of almost every Crusader and they continued to destroy more and more lives with the twisted idea that they were serving God, and most times God wasn’t even thought of. The only thing they could focus on was money, wealth, and fame. The next seven crusades were lost by Roman Catholics. There was even one including 50,000 children, called the Children’s Crusade. Eventually, all land was returned back to the Muslims by their noble leader Saladin. He and King Baldwin alike were supportive of the idea that the two religions could live in peace, but almost no one else shared their view. Saladin only fought back when he had to, and the