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27th November 1095 (926 years ago): Pope Urban II orders first Crusade

On 27 November 1095, Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of “Deus vult!” or “God wills it!”

Born Odo of Lagery in 1042, Urban was a protege of the great reformer Pope Gregory VII. Like Gregory, he made internal reform his main focus, railing against simony (the selling of church offices) and other clerical abuses prevalent during the Middle Ages. Urban showed himself to be an adept and powerful cleric, and when he was elected pope in 1088, he applied his statecraft to weakening support for his rivals, notably Clement III.

By the end of the 11th century, the Holy Land—the area now commonly referred to as the Middle East—had become a point of conflict for European Christians. Since the 6th century, Christians frequently made pilgrimages to the birthplace of their religion, but when the Seljuk Turks took control of Jerusalem, Christians were barred from the Holy City. When the Turks then threatened to invade the Byzantine Empire and take Constantinople, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I made a special appeal to Urban for help. This was not the first appeal of its kind, but it came at an important time for Urban. Wanting to reinforce the power of the papacy, Urban seized the opportunity to unite Christian Europe under him as he fought to take back the Holy Land from the Turks.

At the Council of Clermont, in France, at which several hundred clerics and noblemen gathered, Urban delivered a rousing speech summoning rich and poor alike to stop their in-fighting and embark on a righteous war to help their fellow Christians in the East and take back Jerusalem. Urban denigrated the Muslims, exaggerating stories of their anti-Christian acts, and promised absolution and remission of sins for all who died in the service of Christ.

This call was met with an enthusiastic popular response across all social classes in western Europe. Mobs of predominantly poor Christians numbering in the thousands, led by Peter the Hermit, a French priest, were the first to respond. What has become known as the People's Crusade passed through Germany and indulged in wide-ranging anti-Jewish activities, including the Rhineland massacres. On leaving Byzantine-controlled territory in Anatolia, they were annihilated in a Turkish ambush led by the Seljuk Kilij Arslan at the Battle of Civetot in October 1096.

In what has become known as the Princes' Crusade, members of the high nobility and their followers embarked in late-summer 1096 and arrived at Constantinople between November and April the following year. This was a large feudal host led by notable Western European princes: southern French forces under Raymond IV of Toulouse and Adhemar of Le Puy; men from Upper and Lower Lorraine led by Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin of Boulogne; Italo-Norman forces led by Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred; as well as various contingents consisting of northern French and Flemish forces under Robert Curthose (Robert II of Normandy), Stephen of Blois, Hugh of Vermandois, and Robert II of Flanders. In total and including non-combatants, the forces are estimated to have numbered as many as 100,000.

The crusaders marched into Anatolia. With Kilij Arslan absent, a Frankish attack and Byzantine naval assault during the Siege of Nicea in June 1097 resulted in an initial victory for the crusaders. In July, the crusaders won the Battle of Dorylaeum, fighting Turkish lightly-armoured mounted archers. Next the crusaders marched through Anatolia, suffering casualties from starvation, thirst, and disease. The decisive and bloody Siege of Antioch was fought beginning in 1097 and the city was captured by the crusaders in June 1098. Jerusalem was reached in June 1099 and the Siege of Jerusalem resulted in the city being taken by assault from 7 June to 15 July 1099, during which its defenders were ruthlessly massacred. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was established as a secular state under the rule of Godfrey of Bouillon, who shunned the title of "king". A counterattack was repulsed that year at the Battle of Ascalon, ending the First Crusade. Afterwards the majority of the crusaders returned home.

Urban died in 1099, two weeks after the fall of Jerusalem but before news of the Christian victory made it back to Europe. His was the first of seven major military campaigns fought over the next two centuries known as the Crusades, the bloody repercussions of which are still felt today. Urban was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church in 1881.

Four Crusader states were established in the Holy Land. In addition to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, these were the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Tripoli. The crusader presence remained in the region in some form until the Siege of Acre in 1291. This resulted in the loss of the last major Crusader stronghold, leading to the rapid loss of all remaining territory in the Levant. There were no further substantive attempts to recover the Holy Land after this.

Azmeland wrote:

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Emaha wrote:

howdy

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Fryke wrote:

Me, 5 minutes ago: Woo! My nation is on track. Getting close to where I want to be!

*answers two issues*

Well damnit. Those did the complete opposite of what I thought it would.

nationstates gameplay be like

Guys how can I cancel income tax? Is there an issue for it?

Fryke wrote:

If there is, I havn't found it yet
Best you can do is pick issue solutions that you think will lower taxes
That works real well, just look at my nation! My income tax goal is somewhere around 6-10%, and I just recently passed 44% and still climbing

Okay Thx

Emaha wrote:

Complain to Max Barry.

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The jebpire wrote:

Jeb Is Love. Jeb is Life.

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Denolia wrote:

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Hi

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New ammon-moaabs sar wrote:

Guys how can I cancel income tax? Is there an issue for it?

Keep government expenses as low as possible if your goal is to reduce income tax. There are lots and lots of issues where you have to decide on if/how to spend money on a thing.

Kliffsend wrote:

Blaukraut is Blaukraut und Brautkleid is Brautkleid, try saying that

It's actually: "Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid. Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid und Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut."

28th November 1520 (501 years ago): Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Pacific

After sailing through the dangerous straits below South America that now bear his name, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan enters the Pacific Ocean with three ships, becoming the first European explorer to reach the Pacific from the Atlantic.

Born 4 February 1480 into a family of minor Portuguese nobility, Magellan became a skilled sailor and naval officer in service of the Portuguese Crown in Asia. King Manuel I of Portugal refused to support Magellan's plan to reach the Moluccas (the "Spice Islands") by sailing westwards around the American continent. Facing some criminal offences, Magellan left Portugal and proposed the same expedition to King Charles I of Spain, who accepted it. Consequently, many in Portugal considered him a traitor and he never returned. He adopted the name of Fernando de Magallanes and settled in Seville. There, he married, fathered two children, and organised the expedition. For his allegiance to the Hispanic Monarchy, in 1518, Magellan was appointed admiral of the Spanish Fleet and given command of the expedition – the five-ship Armada of Molucca. He was also made Commander of the Order of Santiago, one of the highest military ranks of the Spanish Empire.

On 20 September 1519, Magellan set sail from Spain in an effort to find a western sea route to the rich Spice Islands of Indonesia. In command of five ships and 270 men, Magellan sailed to West Africa and then to Brazil, where he searched the South American coast for a strait that would take him to the Pacific. He searched the Rio de la Plata, a large estuary south of Brazil, for a way through; failing, he continued south along the coast of Patagonia. At the end of March 1520, the expedition set up winter quarters at Port St. Julian. On Easter day at midnight, the Spanish captains mutinied against their Portuguese captain, but Magellan crushed the revolt, executing one of the captains and leaving another ashore when his ship left St. Julian in August.

On 21 October, he finally discovered the strait he had been seeking. The Strait of Magellan, as it became known, is located near the tip of South America, separating Tierra del Fuego and the continental mainland. Only three ships entered the passage; one had been wrecked and another deserted. It took 38 days to navigate the treacherous strait, and when ocean was sighted at the other end Magellan wept with joy. His fleet accomplished the westward crossing of the ocean in 99 days, crossing waters so strangely calm that the ocean was named “Pacific,” from the Latin word pacificus, meaning “tranquil.” By the end, the men were out of food and chewed the leather parts of their gear to keep themselves alive. On 6 March 1521, the expedition landed at the island of Guam.

Ten days later, they dropped anchor at the Philippine island of Cebu—they were only about 600 kilometers from the Spice Islands. Magellan met with the chief of Cebu, who after converting to Christianity persuaded the Europeans to assist him in conquering a rival tribe on the neighboring island of Mactan. In fighting on 27 April, Magellan was hit by a poisoned arrow and left to die by his retreating comrades.

After Magellan’s death, the survivors, in two ships, sailed on to the Moluccas and loaded the hulls with spice. One ship attempted, unsuccessfully, to return across the Pacific. The other ship, the Vittoria, continued west under the command of Basque navigator Juan Sebastian de Elcano. The vessel sailed across the Indian Ocean, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at the Spanish port of Sanlucar de Barrameda on 6 September 1522, becoming the first ship to circumnavigate the globe.

While in the Kingdom of Portugal's service, Magellan had already reached the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia on previous voyages traveling east (from 1505 to 1511–1512). By visiting this area again but now traveling west, Magellan achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history.