Middle Ages 500-1500 A.D.
• Crusades (Holy Wars)
Fight against Islam
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Battle of Tours
Crushing Muslim ideas in Europe
Re-conquering Spain
Saving the Holy Land (Crusades)
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• Last 200 years (many different crusades)
• Europeans have contact with outside world
– emerge from isolationism
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• Jerusalem
– under Muslim control since 700s
• Battle of Tours in 732
– Treaty signed by Charles Martel and Muslims
• Christians could pilgrimage to Holy Land
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• 1096 Byzantine Emperor
(Alexius I) asked Pope
(Urban II) for help
fighting Muslims
– Muslim Turks invaded
Byzantine empire
– took control of Holy Land
– attacked Christian
pilgrims
• Pope agrees to help
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• Pope calls
Christians to fight
– “God wills it!”
– promised remission of
sins
– wanted increased
power
– wanted knights to fight
Muslims instead of
each other
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• Thousands of
Europeans respond
– knights
• hoped to win wealth
and land
• adventure
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• 1st Crusade (1096-1099)
– Christians battled Muslims
for control of lands in
Middle East
– only crusade close to
achieving goal
• long, bloody campaign
– Christian knights
captured Jerusalem in
1099
• then massacred Muslims &
Jews
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• Crusader states
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Edessa 1098-1144
Antioch 1098-1268
Jerusalem 1099-1187
Tripoli 1100-1289
• Muslims kept attacking
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• 2nd Crusade
– Saladin, Sultan of Egypt,
recaptured Jerusalem in 1187
• 3rd Crusade
– Richard I and Europeans
failed to recapture
Jerusalem
• Saladin reopened
Jerusalem to Christian
pilgrims
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• 4th Crusade
– crusaders raid Constantinople
(Byzantine capital)
• steal wealth
• kill Muslims, Christians, and Jews
(Christians fight Christians)
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• Later Crusaders
– complete failures
– military disasters
• Muslims took control of last
of crusader states
– massacred defeated
Christians
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• Consequences
– 1. Languages in Europe altered
– now have Islamic words
– 2. New products enter Europe
– silks and spices
– Europeans interested in trade
– 3. Center of commerce changed for all of
Europe
– Northern Italian cities won crusades
– Venice, Genoa, Florence became wealthy and controlled
trade
Result of Crusades
• Europeans get interested in trade
with Muslims:
Muslims are:
– highly advanced in science and technology
– maintained knowledge of Eastern Roman Empire
– maintained trade with India in luxury goods
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• Consequences
– 4. System of commerce changed
– bills of credit, checking, banking
– 5. Nobility of Europe is weakened
– power of nobles declined
– many died, including kings
– manors left with no leaders or power authority
– 6. King was great winner
– power of king increased
Crusades (Holy Wars)
• Consequences
– 7. Tremendous increase in knowledge and
interest in geography
– Western Europeans learned world was much
larger than ever imagined
– 8. Pope’s power increased, then weakened
– late 1200s, heightened power of pope
– weakened when Christian knights were
defeated
Reconquest in Spain
• Muslims conquered most of Spain in 700s
• Christian warriors battled Muslims for
500 years
– campaign to drive Muslims out and recover
Spain
– “Reconquista” or “Reconquest”
Reconquest in Spain
• Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand of Aragon
in 1469
• Their combined forces completed Reconquest of
Spain in 1492
Spanish Inquisition
• Religious toleration under Muslim rule
• Queen Isabella wanted religious unity
– ended policy of toleration
• The Inquisition
– Church court to convert or punish heretics
• brutal crusade against Muslims and Jews
(those refusing to convert often burned at stake)
Result of Crusades
• By 1400s, a desire to trade directly with China
and India led Europeans to a new age of
exploration.