The Crusades

Causes of the Crusades

• For hundreds of years Christians had made trips to the “Holy Land” of Palestine or Jerusalem.
• This land was taken over by the Seljuk Turks…Muslims who drove out the Christians..

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Causes of the Crusades

• The Byzantine emperor asked the pope for help and the pope called upon European kings and Christians to reclaim these lands.
• These European Christian men who fought for the Holy Land were called Crusaders.

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Reasons soldiers fought

• Adventures of travel and warfare
• God forgiving their sins – the pope promised!
• Promise of land when they return
• The possibility for riches through war looting
• Prejudice against Muslims

The Crusades (1096-1291)

• A series of wars lasting nearly 200 years where various popes and kings will unite European Christian soldiers called Crusaders to go and reclaim the “Holy Land” from the Muslim Turks.
• These wars are a key turning point in European history.

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In the end, the Christians were not able to regain control of the “Holy Land.”

Why weren’t the Christians ever able to win?

• In short, the Christians really only “won” the First Crusade and then ended up losing the rest.
• The distance to travel was great.
• They fought primarily in desert-like conditions that the knights of Medieval Europe were not used to.
• Christians were outnumbered.
• Crusade leaders fought between themselves and planned poorly.

Effects of the Crusades

• 1. Increase in trade
• War was not the only thing to occur between the Middle East and Europe during these two hundred years.
• Many became rich on the trade that developed between these two areas and beyond (i.e. from China along the Silk Route).

Effects of the Crusades

• 2. New ideas and products are exchanged.
• Europeans are exposed to the use of decimals, Arabic numbers and algebra.
• They also come to enjoy silk, rice, spices, coffee, perfume, rugs, lemons and sugar from the middle and far east Asia.

Effects of the Crusades

• Remember, the Arabs were already trading these goods prior to the Crusades.
• An example of a European merchant who engaged in this trade and cultural diffusion is…
• …Marco Polo who brought back Chinese inventions of paper, gunpowder and the compass to Europe.

“Marco…Polo”�“When a man is riding through this desert by night and for some reason falling asleep or anything else, he gets separated from his companions and wants to rejoin them, he hears spirit voices talking to him as if they were his companions, sometimes even calling him by name. Often these voices lure him away from the path and he never finds it again, and many travelers have got lost and died because of this.”��- Marco Polo dictated the book to Rustichello da Pisa while in prison in Genoa, Italy between 1298-1299.

Effects of the Crusades

• 3. New war technologies:
• New types of catapults and other siege weapons were brought back to Europe to attack castles.
• Castles were improved reflecting Asian building ideas and these new weapons.
• Gunpowder was introduced to Europe toward the end of the middle ages thus limiting the effectiveness of castles and a knight’s armor.

Effects of the Crusades

• 4. Growth of towns and cities:
• As trade increased and soldiers left for war, people began to move to trade cities like Venice, Italy.
• With the lords off to war, feudalism began to break down as serfs were no longer bound to their manors.

Effects of the Crusades

• And there is a shift from an agriculture or barter-based economy (like on the manor) to a market or money-based economy.

Effects of the Crusades

• 5. Growth of intolerance:
• Unfortunately, hatred and prejudice also grew.
• Christians tortured and killed Muslims.
• While Muslims continued torturing and killing Christians.
• This was happening off the battlefield in towns and villages.

FYI: Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire fell to another group of Muslims, the Ottoman Turks in 1453, about 150 years after the Crusades.