The World and Its People, Florida Edition

Chapter 10: Europe—Early History

Web Activity Lesson Plans

Introduction
In this chapter, students learned about the early history of Europe-from Classical Greece and the Roman Republic to the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution. One of the significant events of Medieval Europe was the Crusades. In this activity, students will learn more about the first battles in this series of holy wars, the First Crusade.

Lesson Description
Students will visit the Story of the First Crusade Web site to learn more about how the Crusades began. They will read and answer questions about the People's Crusade as well as the more organized military crusade that followed. After answering the questions, they will write letters to their families at home from the point of view of a crusader on his or her way to Jerusalem.

Instructional Objectives

1. Students will be able to explain why the First Crusade was fought.
2. Students will be able to summarize the events and results of the First Crusade.

Student Web Activity Answers

1. The First Crusade began on November 27, 1095, when Pope Urban II made a speech urging the soldiers to free the Christians of the Byzantine Empire from the Muslims.
2. The disorganized army of the People's Crusade was made up largely of poor people without military equipment or training. They rioted and plundered villages on their way to Jerusalem, and in the end most were killed by the Turks.
3. One of the leaders of the crusaders, Bohemond, had been in secret negotiations with a man called Firuz, who commanded one of the towers on the wall surrounding Antioch. Firuz was an Armenian, recently converted to Islam but sympathetic to the Christians, who agreed to let the crusaders into the city through his tower.
4. The crusaders killed everyone they came upon in Jerusalem and set fire to the main synagogue. Some people were taken as captives.
5. Students' letters will vary.