The Causes and Results of the Crusades

General Information• Crusades – “Going

to the Cross”• Usually ordered by

the Pope• Roman Catholic Holy

Wars to recapture Jerusalem and the Holy land from the Muslims

Time Period• 1st Crusade - 1096• 2nd Crusade – 1146 to

1149• 3rd Crusade – 1189 to

1192• 4th Crusade - 1202• Albigensian Crusade -

1209• Children’s Crusade -

1212• 5th Crusade - 1215• 6th Crusade - 1228• 7th Crusade - 1243• 8th Crusade - 1270• 9th Crusade - 1271

What caused the first Crusade?

• During the Middle Ages pilgrimages were common– What is a pilgrimage? Where would a

pilgrim go?• Jerusalem was taken over by the Seljuk

Turks, who were Muslim– Why was this a big deal to Christians?

• Byzantine Empire served as a buffer between Muslim and Christian areas– Battle of Manzikert in 1071 scared

Christians...

So:• Pope Urban II called for the first

crusade

Why would anyone want to go on a Crusade?

• Religious devotion• Christians’ duty to

correct the evils of the world

• Population boom caused a land shortage

• Respectable employment for a knight

• “Criminals and sinners, ravishers and the sacrilegious, murderers, perjurers and adulterers…”

What happened during the Crusades?

• 1095 “The Popular Crusade” – bands of poor people, no

equipment

• 1097 The First Crusade– highly organized with

100,000 soldiers– stormed Jerusalem in

1099 and slaughtered the citizens• “The blood of the enemy

flowed as high as our horses’ knees…”

• “The dead were piled like the pyramids…”

– 20,000 Christian soldiers were left to occupy… built “Crusader Castles”

Crusades Overview

Muslim Response• By 1144, the

Seljuk Turks organized themselves and retook Jerusalem

• 2nd Crusade is ordered to take it back

• Salah al-Din (Saladin), one of the greatest leaders in history, retook Jerusalem in 1175

The 3rd Crusade• An attempt by European

leaders to re-conquer the Holy Land from Saladin.

• Called by Pope Gregory VIII and led by Europe's most important leaders:– Philip II of France– Richard I of England– Frederick I, Holy Roman

Emperor• Failed to take Jerusalem

Other Crusades• 4th Crusade

turned on itself and conquered Constantinople

• Children’s Crusade

• Crusaders for the next century united European nation states– France– England– Spain– Portugal

Results of the Crusades• Thousands of Muslims, Jews and

Christians killed• Christians controlled Jerusalem for

almost 100 years.• Christian pilgrims could visit Jerusalem

in relative safety.• Slowed the advance of the Turks into

Europe for a few hundred years

Results of the Crusades• From Feudalism to Nation-States

– Financial and governmental institutions to pay Crusaders.

– Governments and the Church began to tax subjects

– Repaired old Roman roads for faster travel

– Increased trade across the Mediterranean

– Standard of living in Europe increased with trade

– Benefited from new ideas learned from the Arabs