History is full of such events where simple misunderstandings among the groups inflicted severe outcomes in the form of war. But then there were times when these wars came to an end on a peace treaty where both parties agreed to end the war. Such an agreement or treaty is known as a truce. According to Oxford Public International Law, “the terms truce, armistice, ceasefire, and cessation of hostilities are often used colloquially as interchangeable. While historically each term captured similar but distinct situations on a continuum from war to peace, with both the start of the war and the end of the war characterized by formal declarations.” In short, a temporary agreement to stop fighting or arguing or a brief interruption in a disagreement. It doesn’t matter how long a truce would last, but it halted the aggression between parties. A similar kind of a truce ended one such aggression initiated on religious grounds and had cost hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. The question is why it always took so long for people to reach such an intellectual decision? A possible answer could be it depends on what kind of priorities were set by the parties.
I have initiated a World History Series on my YouTube channel that will shed some light on history’s most controversial events that have become the turning points for human civilization. This series will be in the form of short episodic narrative documentaries. The emphasis will be on simple yet engaging content for audiences of any age. The first instalment in this series is the Crusades, a sequence of religious wars initiated and supported by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The term ‘Crusade’ refers primarily to the Eastern Mediterranean campaigns between 1095 CE and 1271 CE that had the objective of conquering the Holy Land from Islamic rule.
In this final episode, ‘The King’s Crusade’, we will see how crusaders will sort out their problem, especially when they realised the strength of Salah al-Din Ayubi. Are they going to retaliate once again or sort out some middle ways for both Christians and Muslims?