The Crusades
High Ho, High Ho,
Its off to War we Go
The High Middle Ages
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of
gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're
wearing sunglasses.
We're on a mission from God.
The High Middle Ages
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Blues Brothers
The Crusades
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Who came up with this
bright idea
– The Pope
 The Pope’s were able to
request that kings and
emperors fight in the
Crusades
 Failure to fight in the
Crusades might lead the
Pope to question your
loyalty to God and further
lead to excommunication
 So kings and emperors
sent armies and money to
support the Crusades
The Crusades
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Why are we going to the Holy Land?
– To take back the Holy Land from the non Christians
– To convert the non believers (Muslims)
– To crush heretics
 Not all Crusades were fought in the Holy Land. Southern
France was the site of a Crusade
 In Frankfurt Germany Crusaders on the way to the Holy
Land killed 10,000 Jews just because they were not
Christians
The Crusades
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Heresies
– At about the same time the Crusades were starting
people began to question the role and doctrine of
the Catholic Church
– Many heretics wanted to return to a simpler way of
practicing Christianity
– They rejected the wealth of the church
The Crusades
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Scholasticism
– With the opening of universities in Europe people
began to think more freely
– People began to study law, philosophy, medicine,
science
– This new thought or scholasticism came into direct
conflict with the church
The Crusades
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The Church response
– To keep control of the masses the church set out
strict guidelines or doctrines of practice
– If these doctrines were not followed then
punishment ranged from excommunication to
torture and execution
– At this time the church is often referred to as the
Church Militant
– The 4th Crusade was directed at those deemed
heretics by the church, Jews, Muslims, and heretics
The Crusades
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What motivated the Crusaders
– Genuine religious fervor from both Christian and Muslims
(Our religions is better then yours)
– Geopolitical conflict between Europe and the Middle East
(Hey, your stealing our money, our trade and our land)
– Europe wants in on the trade routes to China and the near
East
– Greed-European nobles want to make a name for themselves
and get rich-spoils of war
– Racial and religious prejudice “I hate you” concept
The Crusades
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The term Crusade best
fits the wars fought
between the Muslims and
the Christians between
1095 and 1291
The Crusades
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The First Crusade (10961099)
– Why
 1095 the Byzantine Empire
asked Christian Europe for
military assistance against a
wave of attacks by Seljuk
Turks (Muslims)
 The Byzantine Empire had
been fighting them off for
about 20 years
 The Seljuk Turks had also
taken the Holy Land and
Jerusalem prior to the plea
for help
The Crusades
Why

–
The Byzantine Emperor in a effort to gain assistance from
the western Christians exaggerated the rumors of what the
Turks were doing to Christians in the Holy Land


–
The whole killing innocent men women and children
Destroying sacred relics
Pope Urban II calls the Council of Clermont

The Pope calls on all European nobles to
1. Go to the Holy Land
2. Recapture Jerusalem
3. Take back the Holy Land
The Crusades
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Off we go
– In 1096 a massive Christian army
heads off to the Holy Land by the
way of Constantinople
– Along the way the crusaders
destroy just about anything in their
way (parts of Europe,
Constantinople, the Holy Land)
– By 1099 the Crusaders reached
Jerusalem and placed it under siege
– In a couple of weeks they took the
city, butchered every Muslim, Jew
and even some Christians in the
city
– Jerusalem was now in the hands of
the Christians
The Crusades
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What happened afterwards
– The Crusaders established
what was called the Latin
Kingdoms
– These kingdoms served as the
military and political
strongholds for the Christians
in the Middle East
– The allowed knights and
nobles to
 Own land
 Become involved in trade
and become rich
The Crusades
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The Latin Kingdoms
– The Crusaders were able to hold on to these
Kingdoms for about 200 years however at a cost
– The Crusaders would have to fight a series of
Crusades against the Turks, Arabs and other
Muslims who wanted to drive the Christians out
– When the Muslims were successful in taking back
land from the Crusaders then the Crusaders would
start another Crusade
The Crusades
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The Second Crusade
(1146-1149)
– One of the Latin
Kingdoms falls to the
Muslims
The Crusades
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The Third Crusade (11891192)
– Saladin the military leader of
the Muslims captures Jerusalem
in 1187
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Saladin is probably the
greatest military leader the
Muslims have ever known
Richard the Lion-Heart of
England, Philip II Augustus
of France and Frederick I
Barbarossa of the Holy
Roman Empire join together
to fight Saladin
The Crusades
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The Third Crusade
– Richard does some nasty things
while fighting the Muslims
 Killing every Muslim man,
woman, and child in Acre
– Both Richard and Saladin face
off in a series of battles
– Neither can gain the advantage
on the other
– The Crusade ends in a
stalemate
– Muslims keep Jerusalem but
Christians were free to visit the
city
The Crusades
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Later Crusades
– From 1200 to about 1291 a series of very unsuccessful
Crusades are launched against the Muslims and even
Christians
– The 4th Crusade (1202-1204)
 This Crusade targeted the Christian city of Constantinople instead of
the Muslims
 (Crusaders were now just looking for land and wealth and saw a way
to obtain it in Constantinople)
– The ideals of Chivalry were dying out and knights and nobles
were killing whom ever and taking whatever they wanted
The Crusades
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Later Crusades
– In the 1200’s there was Children’s Crusade were young boys and girls
went off to fight the Muslims
– Guess just how this ended up? Lots of children captured and enslaved
– Crusaders attacked Egypt and North Africa with little success
The Turks
– During this same time the Turks were able to drive the Christians out of
the Latin Kingdoms
– Most of the early crusaders who had established the kingdoms had died
or went home
– In 1291 the last outpost for the Christians at Acre fell
– Christian presence in the Middle east was abandoned
– The Crusades were over
The Crusades
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Effects of the Crusades
– Long term effect that still last today
 Muslims and Christians hate each other
 It caused a greater division between both religions that is still played
out in the word today
– Effect on Europeans
 Greater understanding of the world and the lands to the east
– Out of this will come the need to further explore, open trade
routes and develop kingdoms in other parts of the world
– Europeans were becoming greedy and wanted the wealth of
the world
The Crusades
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Effects of the Crusades
– Increase in knowledge
 Europeans and Muslims were able to exchange new
technologies
– The Muslims learned masonry and fortress building from the
Europeans
 Europeans learned about
– Medicine, sailing technology, literature
– The Crusades ended the Middle Ages and ushered in
the Renaissance
The Crusades
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Effects of the Crusades
– The Crusades were not only a religious endeavor but
also a political and social movement
– The early crusades were more religious
– The later crusades were more based on greed
– While the crusades were based on a conflict of
religions it became a contest of who was superior
The Crusades
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Effects of the Crusades
– The Crusades were violent and bloody,
 Death, rape, pillage, slavery
 Chivalry was non existent on both sides
– The religious devout were willing to die for their
religion
The Crusades
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Effects of the Crusades
– Brought Europe into the sphere of Eastern
Mediterranean
– Interaction of trade, new ideas, and rediscovery of
the ancient past which had been preserved by the
Byzantine and Muslim Empires
The Crusades
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Effects of the Crusades
– The most important impact or effect of the
Crusades is that conquest and expansion might fail it
still results in cultural interaction or cultures that
might not have otherwise interacted
– This would cause Europe to leave the Middle Ages
and enter the Renaissance and the Age of
Exploration