The Mongols: Guilty of Terrorism and Kidnapping

The Mongol Trial was a success; not only did my prosecuting group win two of the three acts of violence that the Mongols were charged with, but we as students were able to get information about the Mongols and have a more factually-based opinion.  For the most part, it was a fun, interactive project.  The research part was easy, but what was not as easy was playing the role of Pope Innocent IV very sufficiently.  I feel that I was more successful in fulfilling this role, however.  I just wish that I had more of an impact of accusing the Mongols guilty of terrorism and kidnapping, but I do believe I did what could be done.

I completely agree with the outcome of the trial.  I never believed that the Mongols committed genocide, since that is the goal of most, if not all, armies: to kill the enemy and win the war.  I do believe that the Mongols were in fact guilty of kidnapping and terrorism.  The people of conquered lands were taken from their homes and families unwillingly and forced to go to the Mongol capital at Karakorum.   Also, terrorism was greatly used by the Mongols.  They ravaged entire cities if they showed signs of opposition.  This cause widespread fear throughout Eurasia because of the utter destruction that took place all over the landmass.  This led to my personal conclusion that the Mongols committed acts of terrorism and kidnapping, but not genocide.

Genghis Khan: Madman or Genius?

Was Genghis Khan really a cold-blooded, ruthless murderer?  Or was he simply a brilliant and self-composed leader?  I have the notion that Genghis Khan was a genius and extremely talented military leader.  I get the sense of his killings being reasonable, not just done for the sake of doing so.  He was always able to justify a reason for attacking and killing other peoples, and if he was unable to, then he simply did not attack that specific tribe.  Genghis Khan was the ruler of the largest land empire ever to exist on the face of the earth.  He would be incapable of conquering so many different groups of people if he did it solely for the sake of killing them because more tribes would try to fight if they knew he would just murder them anyway.  People submitted to his whim if they knew his soldiers would be attacking.  If Genghis Khan really was just killing to shed blood, then he would have massacred all and any group of people, whether or not they resisted his power.  Khan was sensible to women and children.  He would not just slaughter the women and children of conquered peoples because he could; he let them go on with their business and even protect them from his own soldiers.

Project- Unanswered Questions

The reason why we chose Rage Comics to represent the different Crusades is simple.  Rage Comics are short, sweet, and to the point.  Also, they have the capability of being humorous and make the abbreviated form of the battles funny.  The only problem that we encountered was that we could not get as much information onto the Rage Comic as we would like to and had to explain it in the blog post.  The project worked how we figured it would.  All the Rage Comics were simple and clever like we hoped, but as I said we just could not get all the information on each comic that we wanted.

Bibliography for Crusades Project

Works Cited

"The 8 Crusades Explained." Top 10 Lists - Listverse. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://listverse.com/2007/08/07/the-8-crusades-explained/>.

"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Crusades." NEW ADVENT: Home. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04543c.htm>.

"The Eighth Crusade - History for Kids!" Kidipede - History for Kids - Homework Help for Middle School Social Studies. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/history/latemiddle/eighthcrusade.htm>.

"The Eighth Crusade." Medieval Times & Castles. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.medievality.com/eighth-crusade.html>.

"The Fifth Crusade." Medieval Times & Castles. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.medievality.com/fifth-crusade.html>.

"Internet History Sourcebooks." FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook1k.asp>.

"Internet History Sourcebooks Project." FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1192peace.asp>.

Lcsw, An. "Fifth Crusade (1217 to 1221)." Unexplainable.Net- UFOS, Ghosts, Paranormal, 2012 And More- Latest News. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.unexplainable.net/Religion/Fifth-Crusade-1217-to-1221.shtml>.

"Muslim Perspective on the Crusades | Perspectives and Religion in the Crusades." Agnosticism / Atheism - Skepticism & Atheism for Atheists & Agnostics. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://atheism.about.com/od/crusades/a/crusadesviews_2.htm>.

"Third Crusade, 1189-1192." Military History Encyclopedia on the Web. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_crusade3rd.html>.

"Third Crusade." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Crusade>.

The Eight Crusade (Description in Comment Section)

The Peace Crusade (Description in Comment Section)

The Fifth Crusade (Description in Comment Section)

The Third Crusade (Description in Comments Section)

Project Progess- THE FINAL DAY HAS COME

Now that we are finally done with our projects, I will share my contributions to the group's progress before posting the finals products.  For the production of the Rage Comics, I helped provide some of the information pertaining to each of our Crusades.  This basic knowledge I helped to provide came from the Google Doc that Mr. Whitten sent to everybody.  Like the rest of my group members, I proofread each Rage Comic to make sure they all could display the Muslim perspective on these wars of religion.  Lastly, I worked extensively with Keval on finding links to assist us in our research.

Project Progress- #4 1/11/12

Researching information about the Muslim perspective on the Crusades is becoming more challenging.  It is easy enough to find summaries of each Crusade, but it would be much easier to derive the Muslim perspective based on the information from the source.  We had finished Rage Comics for each Crusade, but we now need to maybe edit them to represent the Muslim perspective more efficiently, or just explain below the Rage Comic what the Muslim view is.

Project Progress #3- 1/10/12

Today, my group found one link to the Fifth Crusade:

http://www.medievality.com/fifth-crusade.html Bing.com

The crusaders made the terrible mistake of attacking Muslims in Egypt while still wearing their knight armor.  They were too overheated to fight efficiently and were obliterated by the Muslims, with only a few crusaders surviving and heading back to Europe.  The Muslims obviously were content in demolishing their invaders and felt a pride in their military.

Project Progress #2- 1/9/12

Today, my group was able to find a few websites with significant information about the Third Crusade and the Muslim feelings towards it.

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_crusade3rd.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Crusade
http://atheism.about.com/od/crusades/a/crusadesviews_2.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04543c.htm

The Third Crusade involved Richard the Lionhearted of the Franks and Saladin reaching a treaty without bloodshed between the two religious groups.  The Muslims would permit Christians to  visit Jerusalem but not rule.  Originally, the Muslims did not care about the Christians coming  to a city in their control until they started causing trouble and commotion in the Muslim world.  The crusades left no real lasting effects on the Muslims.

Project Progress- #1 1/8/12

Today I chose my group for the project and which crusades we would be doing. My group consists of me, Steven Hong, Josh Rosenberg, Joe Greeley, Adam Bonfilio, and Keval Kapadia. We are going to make Rage Comics for the Third Crusade, Fifth Crusade, and Eight Crusade.

Holi

Holi is a religious holiday, celebrated by followers of Hinduism.  One of the primary countries that celebrates this Hindu holiday is India.  Holi can be related to post-classical India since the young man Prahlad was devoted to following Vishnu.  A custom of Holi involves loosening the strictness of social structure, including the caste system.  The different castes come closer during Holi and put their statuses aside, which is very unlike early India in which the castes were very distinct and separate.