A Quest for the Holy Land
Crusades
A long series or Wars
between Christians
and Muslims
They fought over
control of Jerusalem
which was called the
Holy Land because it
was the region where
Jesus had lived,
preached and died
Causes of the Crusades
Muslim Turks
captured Jerusalem
from the Byzantine
Empire
Muslims stopped
Christians from
Visiting Holy Land
Christian pilgrims
were attacked
Byzantine Empire
feared attack on
Constantinople
The Call to Arms
 Pope Urban II called
 for the defeat of the
Turks, returning the
Holy Land to the
Christians
Mobilization of the
Crusades

 Pope Urban traveled to various cities for nine months
preaching the Crusade and offering extraordinary inducements
to include a plenary indulgence remitting all punishments due
to sin for those who died on the Crusade
 Serfs were allowed to leave the land to which they were bound
 Citizens were exempted from taxes
 Debtors were given a moratorium on interest
 Prisoners were freed and death sentences were commuted by a
bold extension of Papal authority to life service in Palestine
Who Answered the
Call?

Feudal Lords
Knights
Peasants
The First Crusade (10961099)
 Peasant army

 Untrained
 Lacked military equipment
 Many killed by Muslim
Turks
 Knights
 Succeeded in capturing
Jerusalem
Second Crusade (11471149)

 After victory many Christians went back home.
 The Turks eventually took back much of the
territory.
 King of France and Emperor of Germany sent troops
to stop the Turks.
Second Crusade (11471149)
 Saladin leads the Muslim

Turks to victory,
defeating the Christians
 * He was considered a very
wise ruler. He was known for
his sometimes kind treatment
of fallen enemies. Many
Christians saw him as a
model of knightly chivalry.
Third Crusade (11891192)

 King Richard of England
convinces the Turks to
allow Christians to visit
the Holy Land
Richard and Saladin

 Richard and Saladin embarked on a “unique campaign in
which blows and battles alternated with compliments and
courtesies”
 (Durant, 599)
 The two executed enemy prisoners they held
 Richard proposed his sister marry Saladin’s brother
 They signed peace treaties then rejected them
 Richard conferred knighthood on the son of a Muslim
ambassador
 Richard got sick and Saladin sent him his own physician and
some fruit
 Saladin saw Richard unmounted in battle and sent him a horse
Crusades Continue Through
1200’s

 Several more crusades attempted with no victories
for the Christians
 Children’s crusade, - 30,000 soldiers - many of them
under 12 years old – Never made it to the Holy Land
Results of the Crusades

 I.F. Turks Traveled they would Trade
 I = Improvements – Ships, Maps, Explorers
 F = Feudalism declines because Feudal lords die or
spend too much money on military.
 T = Turks still rule the Holy Land
 T = Travel – Europeans want to travel more
 T = Trade – Europeans want product from the East
such as sugar, cotton, silk, spices, etc.
Results of the Crusades

 Jerusalem was in Muslim hands
 Christian pilgrims became fewer and more fearful
than ever
 The Muslim powers, once tolerant of religious
diversity, had been made intolerant by attack
 The effort of the popes to bring peace and unity to
Europe had been thwarted by nationalistic
ambitions, avarice, and internal dissension
 The influence of the Catholic Church and the
position of the pope declined and the schism
between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman
Catholic Church widened
Results of the Crusades

 Muslim civilization had been victorious over
Christian civilization
 Indigenous eastern Christians were caught in the
middle between Crusaders and Muslims, and
many who were outraged by the excesses of the
Crusaders or who wanted to avoid persecution by
Muslim leaders who saw them as collaborators
with the Crusaders converted to Islam
 In fact, the Crusades ironically proved instrumental in
making the eastern Mediterranean predominantly
Muslim
Results of the Crusades

 Serfs had used the Crusades to leave their lands and
many found new opportunities
 The Turkish capture of Constantinople was delayed
until 1453
 The Muslims, even though victorious, had themselves
been weakened, and fell more easily when the
Mongols attacked
 Trade and exploration were enhanced
Trade
 Italian traders obviously
benefited from supplying the
Crusades while they were
going on, but they also saw
an opportunity to expand
their market by establishing
direct trade with the Muslim
world
 The lucrative trade provided
great profit to the Italian
city-states and ultimately
provided the economic basis
for the Italian Renaissance
we’ll discuss in Lesson 24
Lorenzo de Medici was part of a
family that ruled Florence and
served as bankers for the
Crusades and patrons of the
Renaissance
Trade
 The most important trade
item were spices
 Other items included
cotton, linen, dates, coral,
pearls, porcelain, silk, and
metal goods
 Damascus was a key
center for industry and
commerce and a stopping
point for pilgrims on
their way to Mecca
Egyptian scarf or garment
fragment ca 1395
Trade

 European Christians also became exposed to new ideas as
they traveled throughout the Mediterranean basin
 The works of Aristotle
 Islamic science and astronomy
 “Arabic” numerals which the Muslims had borrowed
from India
 Techniques for paper production which the Muslims
had learned from China
 While the Crusades may have largely failed as military
adventures, they helped encourage the reintegration of
western Europe into the larger economy of the western
hemisphere
The Reconquista of Spain
 The Christians did have
better success wresting
Sicily and Spain from the
Muslims in actions separate
from the Crusades
 Sicily was regained
relatively easily
 Muslims had conquered it in
the 9th Century but in the
1090, after about 20 years of
fighting, Norman warriors
returned it to Christian hands
 Spain would be a bit more
of a challenge
The Reconquista of Spain
 Muslims invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the early 8th
Century and ruled all but small Christian states such
as Catalonia
 In the 1060s Christians began attacking outward from
these toeholds
Immediate Impact of the
Reconquista
 After the successful
Reconquista, the
devoutly Christian
rulers of Spain and
Portugal were eager to
dominate the Islamic
states in North Africa
and to convert nonChristians
 The desire to spread
Christianity would be
one of the motives for
the European
explorations
1492 was the year of both the
completion of the Reconquista and
Columbus’ voyage to the New
World
The Reconquista of Spain
 By 1150 Christians had recaptured Lisbon and controlled
over half the peninsula
 These successes lured reinforcements from England and
France and a new round of campaigning in the 13th
Century brought all but Granada into Christian hands
 In 1492, Christian forces conquered Granada and the
Reconquista was complete
Assignment: Recruitment Poster

 Use your notes and the textbook pages to create
either a recruitment poster or a crusades board
game. Your project should include:
 A definition of the crusades.
 A map of the crusades.
 The four causes of the crusades.
 Pope Urban’s call for defeat of the Turks to return
the. holy land top the Christians.
 Who answered or needs to answer the call.
 A description of all four crusades.
 The results of the crusades.