Manifest Destiny's inherent tendency to its destination of destruction.

This day I am sacrificing Sense and Sensibility to expend forty minutes in the pursuit of this "blog" post. The eponymous aforementioned prior institution: "Manifest destiny" is hopefully known by a number of you. If not... I am disappointed.

"It is our manifest destiny to overspread the continent" John O'Sullivan, an editor wrote in the decade of eighteen-thirty. This led to numerous sickeningly allegorical paintings featuring the tread of progress o'erstepping the verdant fields... Well, you understand.
Needless to say, wouldn't it be a fair exhibition of the overt falliance of this "Manifest Destiny" if "overspread" is included in the description? Wouldn't... you... really think.

Of course, America already did have human inhabitants before 1492. In fact, the world was in existence before 1492. Nonetheless, these inhabitants went on their merry way - and not-quite-so-merry in the case of the Mesoamerican cultures such as the Aztec or Maya, who practiced human sacrifice, although their Andean neighbor the Inca did not - until the colonizers came. Then the Puritans came (Requisite digression: Elizabeth I was getting a little fed up with her people whinging about those annoying fanatics, so the Puritans decided that it would be most advantageous to pick up sticks. And go to that wonderful land ripe for the taking. Yuuuuup). Then America was founded! Good for America, bad for the Native Americans.

And onward went the tide of imperialism. How the Americans rebelled against their colonizers for their imperialism, but followed in the English footsteps by trying to obliterate other cultures remorsefully. The English only professed that they were trying to civilize them! Blatant lie of course, and yet the Americans decided they were the rulers?

The Native American peoples of this continent have a traditional tenet. The land, what you step on, does not belong to you. You belong to the land, what gives you water and food and shade and and rain and minerals. It makes sense, doesn't it, Reader?

Now, even today in our epoch of smartphones, i-Pads, eBooks, and computers, after massacres and their tribe's poisoning, these cultures survive. Some languages only have a few speakers remaining. Only a few, Reader! But they survive. I say, more power to them.

When Columbus stepped ashore the New World - Or another Old World - He deemed the aboriginal inhabitants Indians, for he believed he stood on the Indies or the present Philippines. He opened the floodgates and in rushed the conquistadors. It wasn't his fault. It was a human tragedy.

The next time my reader - You Reader, whomever you may be - Refers to the aborigines of America? The Native Americans? Please refrain from Indians. Indians live on the designated Asian subcontinent. Native Americans may not be excruciatingly   correct, as the only native Americans are probably just the relations of the beavers and elk, but in my mind, it is certainly more correct than Indians.
Capiche?

Very much appreciated. Maybe their both sometimes, humans can be humongous, hypocritical jerks but again, they're pretty awesome often and that's the important thing.  Even cynical

-Anacostia Mirabow-Marignac can support that.

The First Part of the Second Part of the Crusades Report: i.e. The Second Crusade

'Ello me loyal readers, viewers  and fellow Bloggers. It is become general intelligence the author has not frequented this haven of scribblings and opinionations.
That is primarily due to a subsequent influx of academic pursuits and elsewise thwarting the better wishes of time, the week was edaciously consumed by the aforementioned. In future, the author shall endeavor to review a more expedite transport of intelligence, videlicet the summarily following Crusades! Henceforth, when all of the Crusading number have been terminated, it shall switch to the expected rants. (Further, feel free to comment & I'll receive your thoughts or corrections with grace.
Bon voyage. Enjoy!

By the time of the Second Crusade, in 1145, two orders of knights had been founded. These fledgling organizations were the Knights Hospitallier, and the more renown, Knights Templar six years apart in 1113 and 1119. These began as peaceful defenders, the Hospitalliers building havens for ailing pilgrims and nearly everyone, really, the Templar safeguarding pilgrims to the Holy Land. Pretty nice. Until the Crusades and popular culture steps in. These two orders provided auxiliary to the Crusades.

So. It's easier said than done than make another report on the Crusades. I suppose the prior one is  an unreplicable  masterpiece. Regardless, it began as you may expect, with war.
Edessa, the domain of the Baldwin aforementioned (Short history of Baldwin after the First Crusade: Ruled as King of Edessa and after Godfrey died, Jerusalem, separated from his wife for some reason or another, re-married, his new wife Adalaide was quick rich so that funded several campaigns, then after invading Egypt, he died in Jerusalem the veritable founder of Christian Outremer but the generation of the First Crusade passing away) , was then ruled by his cousin, also a Baldwin, Baldwin Bourcq but that did not stop Edessa from being conquered by the Saracens - Or more specifically the forces led by one Zengi. No, honestly, it sounds like a comic book villain with a curly mustache and an exaggerated dagger. But his name was Zengi. Also, he happened to have a great-nephew whose name was Saladin, but that's another story.

Edessa was one of three principalities in the Christian Middle-East: The Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa. All were established during the First Crusade.  At that time, the ruler Baldwin was away relaxing... Bad move. Edessa was captured, and in some sources the people were killed (See, that source happened to be a European Christian in that time, so a pinch of salt may be required).
Needless to say, those upstart Christians were more than a little irked. I would be a little irked so I can't blame them. However, when the Pope, a newly-appointed man called Eugenius III heard the tidings from Outremer, he issued a Crusading contract to King Louis The Seventh of the French, who had previously quarreled with the papacy, oddly enough. Not-so-oddly, this Louis is the one who was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine! So, Louis, unfortunately for the people in the cathedral but fortuitously for the Crusade, had been responsible for the prior deaths of many people in a fire in Vitry's Cathedral. Being as bloody awful as most rulers in that time, Louis decided that the bestest activity to engage in was a Crusade with, you guessed it, more people being killed! Something tells me his faith got ahead of his morals there.

Anyway, after a little confusion having to do with Louis never even hearing of the Crusade, Bernard of Clairveux, a bishop and moreover, the preacher of the Second Crusade (And moreover the preacher of the immortal words: "Fly then to arms; let a holy rage animate you in the fight, and let the Christian world[*cough, cough* *hack* *gasp *cough, cough] resound with these words from the prophet 'Cursed me he who does not stain his sword with blood!'" Totes!) send forth the crusading bill again, Louis received it, a magnificent spectacle ensued in Burgundy in which Bernard assuredly delivered a stirring oratory, then en masse Louis knelt with the knights in the square. With the newly dubbed Second Crusade, women appeared dressed as Amazons, heart-set to fight for the Crusade. Among them was Eleanor of Aquitaine, Louis's wife married when she was fourteen (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), a lady from Poitier in France.
Meanwhile, King Conrad III of Germany set out for Palestine, and Edessa. Why in the name of Chinese takeout the knightly populations of two countries were needed to get Edessa is beyond me. (To digress, Conrad is the antagonist in a rather interesting folk tale, in which while besieging a castle in Weinsburg, he gave the women in that castle freedom to leave with whatever they could carry. These marvelous women took their husbands on their shoulders, and their children if they had any under their arms, and left the city. Conrad, reputedly, was quite touched "A king" he said to them, "should always stand by his word." Then, without further ado, he released the rest of the city of Weinsburg. I suppose that is why the Middle Ages is so legendary, spendorous in that legend.

So, where was I. Ah yes, setting out? Indeed. Fairly the most comprehensive report on the Crusade is one source, so this will be slightly less varied than the previous, more ably researched report. Conrad and Louis set out in 1147,fifty years after the First Crusade, accompanied by generals and commanders, their bishops and relatives, the commoners and knights, and even the reconquistadores in Spain had their chance.
However, their embarked forces (Read: the entirety of their forces) were waylaid in Portugal by the beleaguered Duke Henry, the future king of Portugal & a French baron. He asked them to assist his effort to take Lisboa - Lisbon - from the Muslims who currently held it. Doing this would help the Christian world! Plus there's also plunder! So, with those crucial motivations, the Crusaders delayed months capturing Lisbon, then - For the love of heaven, I can't really blame them - stayed in Portugal the winter. I wouldn't be crazy about traveling from a temperate, languorous, triumphant, pillage-full, environment to the desolate, foreign, Middle East (With little likelihood of plunder, but no spoilers...) Anyway, a few remained, but most considered their holy mission at a close. Thus, the Crusade's total was lowered significantly, but not to be dissuaded, Louis and Conrad continued to Palestine.
Conrad arrived in Constantinople, approximately four-and-a-half-hundred miles away from the city they sought. Fortuity was away, and so Manuel I of Byzantium, despite his marriage to the sister of Conrad's second wife, Gertrude (See, both of his wives were named Gertrude. Also, see, Wikipedia, being the only source that I found giving the names of them, Gertrude I: let's say, had no male children but three girls. The second, Gertrude of Sulzbach had Henry Berangar and Frederick. Yep, you just can't invent these names) - Ahem, so despite his marriage to Bertha, Queen Gertrude's sister, it is implied he and Conrad weren't the best of friends. Possibly the knight's pillage and defacement of the countryside close to  Constantinople was just partially responsible.
I digress. For Manuel I wanted his brother-in-law-in-law (?) to get out of Constantinople in an expedient manner. (N.B. A source re[ports Conrad set out but was driven back. However, that being purely alledged, I have written the defeat of the Germans at Dorylaeum instead)  Finally, the Germans crossed the Bosporus ahead of the French, and into Ottoman territory. I guess they neglected their water-purifying tablets because they were running short on water and some eighty miles away from Constantinople, they breaked to rest. Alas , that is easier said than done in a Crusade and as soon as the knights stopped by a Dorylaeum river - Dorylaeum being a region, presently a city - , the Saracens attacked.
Decimated,  Conrad retreated farther and farther back, eventually ending back up in Nicaea. The remaining knights had not finished their ordeal yet, however, and the arrival of Louis VII heralded more hardship. After weeks of consultation, Conrad was convinced to follow Louis - and Eleanor - into the Middle-East in spite of having only a hundred so knights remaining.

Yeeeah. Poor people. So, they traveled to Attolia!

No, sorry, I mean Attalia. No-one's hands are being sliced off and replaced with hooks here! So. I suppose a laborious adventure jammed with heroic knights and waving banners would follow that inauspicious beginning? Surely you jest! Nonetheless, on their way to Ephesus (Presently in Greece) it was quite jolly: Provisions were full, spirits were high... Then they landed in Ephesus and at Christmas Conrad III fell ill. He and his entourage rushed back to Constantinople, where the king was nursed back to health by his brother-in-law (...in law...?) and then rushed back. Now, almost everyone had thought that just perhaps an overland route would be most advantageous. Accordingly, Conrad set out from Constantinople; Accordingly, Louis' camp was washed away in a storm and also, he decided it really wasn't that nice to travel by sea. Ironically, it was not quite that lovely to travel to the Holy Land at all, as was exhibited by their discovery of bodies on the plain while they approached Attalia. Which were troops of Conrad, who were killed by conditions in food, or lack of it, water, or lack of it, and sun, or munificent presence of it. Furthermore, there were now Ottomans in this region in this region and sporadically, stragglers were killed off. Although history clouds all details, these no exception, matters were made worse when a ridge presented itself for a camping-place but in spite of that, Geoffrey of Poitou the commander of the regiment had them make camp in a more aesthetic valley. The Ottomans mounted the ridge and the French were attacked in the last light.
Queen Eleanor was caught up in the mêlée and through the chaos no harm came to her, certainly less than the killed troops, it caused mortification, because the commander camping in the valley? A Poitevin. Well. Erk.
Thoroughly finished with that nonsense, the Knights Templar were appointed quartermaster and general of the troops, and consequently the condition of the army much improved. However, once the call came up for ships less than needed arrived, while the knights set sail for Antioch, the soldiers were left beneath the walls of the besieged Attalia to fend for themselves. Most perished by the elements or the Saracens.
 Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine arrived in Antioch shortly after the spring of 1148. Little did they know that the magnificent citadels and buildings would be beleaguered by Nur ed-Din scarcely twenty years later... Welcomed graciously by Raymond of Poitiers, Eleanor's uncle and a friend of hers. There relations between Louis the French king and the Poitevin duchess Eleanor frayed, exacerbated by Raymond's suggestion for Louis to besiege Aleppo, the headquarters of the main aggressor and successor to Zengi: Nur ed-Din (Who happened to have a nephew named Salah ed-Din but I digress. A thousand pardons). Well, Eleanor supported her uncle in that front, and Louis left to Jerusalem, with Eleanor essentially under campaign-camp-sort-of-house-arrest. And he didn't go to Aleppo either, incidentally. And just incidentally neither did they go to Edessa. Instead, still being a neat person and a respected leader, Baldwin III and the Templars resolved to travel to Damascus. This preempted a council, presently known as the Council of Jerusalem being held in, guess what, Jerusalem!
(One picture by William of Tyre, a noted "historian" back in the day shows three guys sitting around convivially, but there was probably more shouting and frying-pan wielding, considering how some declined to go to Damascus, thus making the expedition even smaller.)
Now, it was decided that they go to Damascus, the aforementioned army, quite small although being the largest army to march in the Holy Land, setting forth to the city. As a consequence of the debilitation, there were not enough troops to surround the mighty city and they set up shop on the western side of Damascus, in verdant orchards. However many verdant orchards were obtained though, Nur ed-Din was still on the march to Damascus. On July 24th the Crusaders & Saracens fought by the walls, plenteous dying occurring on both sides.  The next night the Crusaders sliced the trees into siege towers and oriented them... Well, no place really considering the Muslim reinforcements that took the moment to drive them from the walls.
Somewhat irate, the Crusaders moved their towers to the east side (Which unfortunately had no water beside the rather invalidated source which the Most Mighty and Epic Mu'in Unur Ad-Din - i.e. Unur - had poisoned previously. Conrad III and Louis VII now with their forces united held a council with their knights: like Connie's brother Otto of Freising,  Baldwin of Jerusalem, Geoffrey VIII of Anjou, with hope Eleanor of Poitier among them.
The die were cast and it was decided they leave the outskirts of the city, Damascus, and the entirety of the Holy Land.

Making haste, Conrad solved problems in his German lands. Louis and Eleanor sustained their stay a little while longer, celebrating Easter in Jerusalem. Then, they left, estranged. Then again, they certainly were much better off than all the dead in Outremer.
Nutshellily, it was a enormous flop. St. Bernard wrote a missive of it, defying the naysayers of his position. Raymond of Poitiers was killed in the Battle of Inab on a summer's day of 1149, and his head shipped to Baghdad. (Those people had a strange fetish about beheadings. Quote "The heads were taken to Damascus to be exchanged for a reward"). Little less violence, y'all?

Many of the people and events involved were quite interesting. Eleanor and Louis annulled their marriage and summarily, Eleanor married Henry II of England, heralding another era of Crusade. Councils were held and Crusades were waged on various places. Bohemonds, Raymonds, Raynards, and Geoffreys abounded.  So, it pretty much discouraged any more Crusading actions for another seventy years, which in all was a good thing!

There ends the Second Crusade.

Thank you for reading! Doubtlessly you find that immediately edifying, but with luck perhaps it equates the entertainment of the prior piece.

Naturally,

Anacostia Mirabow-Marignac.