Crusades

Crusades 

  The Crusades were a series of wars by Western European Christians to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Crusades began in 1095 and ended in the mid- or late 13th century. The term Crusade was originally applied solely to European efforts to retake from the Muslims the city of Jerusalem, which was sacred to Christians as the site of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It was later used to designate any military effort by Europeans against non-Christians. The Crusaders carved out feudal states in the Near East. Thus the Crusades are an important early part of the story of European expansion and colonialism. They mark the first time Western Christendom undertook a military initiative far from home, the first time significant numbers left to carry their culture and religion abroad.That was the battle cry of the thousands of Christians who joined crusades to free the Holy Land from the Muslims.  From 1096 to 1270 there were eight major crusades and two children's crusades, both in the year 1212. Only the First and Third Crusades were successful. In the long history of the Crusades, thousands of knights, soldiers, merchants, and peasants lost their lives on the march or in battle. 

    Europe’s population was growing, its urban life was beginning to revive, and both long distance and local trade were gradually increasing. European human and economic resources could now support new enterprises on the scale of the Crusades. A growing population and more surplus wealth also meant greater demand for goods from elsewhere. European traders had always looked to the Mediterranean; now they sought greater control of the goods, routes, and profits. Thus worldly interests coincided with religious feelings about the Holy Land and the Pope's newfound ability to mobilize and focus a great enterprise. 

   What brought the crusaders together was one single purpose and but none of the logistics were actually thought out. The crusaders faced many obstacles some of them being that had no obvious or widely accepted leader, no agreement about relations with the churchmen who went with them, no understanding of the Pope's role, and no agreement with the Byzantine emperor on whether they were his allies, servants, rivals, or perhaps enemies. These uncertainties divided the Crusaders into groups  that did not always get along well with one another. 

When viewed by military standards, the Crusades were a failure. What was gained so quickly was slowly but steadily lost. Historians were inclined to give the Crusades credit for making Western Europe more urban. They believed the Crusades had brought Western Europe higher standards of Eastern medicine and learning

Source :www.historytoday.com/jonathan.../crusades-complete-hist