The Crusades

The Holy Land As Islam spread, Muslim leaders began conquering surrounding territories, including the city of Jerusalem Muslim armies from Africa and Asia swept into the Byzantine Empire to take over valuable territory Rumors spread that Muslim rulers were persecuting Christians in their newly-conquered lands The Byzantine army tried to stop the Muslim invaders, but they were quickly defeated The Byzantine Emperor was afraid that the Muslims would attack Constantinople, so he asked the pope in Rome for help

The Council of Clermont In response to the emperor’s plea, the pope called for a special council to meet in Clermont, France During the meeting, the pope and other Church leaders called on all Christian warriors in Europe to band together and fight against the Muslim Turks who were invading the Byzantine Empire “GOD WILLS IT!”

The First Crusade Made up of two groups: peasants and knights The peasants were unskilled and poorly equipped – as they cut across Europe toward the Holy Land, they fought with European Jews, slaughtering entire communities When they made it to Jerusalem, the Turks defeated them quickly The knights were very well-trained, but unprepared to make the journey to the Holy Land and ran out of supplies The knights retook the Holy land and split it into four states

The Second Crusade Began after King Louis VII of France learned that Edessa, one of the states in the Holy Land, had been taken over once again Louis called for another Crusade to reclaim the Holy Land for Christianity The crusade was a spectacular failure – no land was taken back and the crusaders returned to Europe empty-handed

The Third Crusade Began when the Muslim emperor Saladin kicked the Christians out of Jerusalem Christians across Europe responded by launching the Third Crusade King Richard the Lion-Hearted of England sailed to the Holy Land to fight against Saladin Richard and Saladin had high respect for each other and tried to end the struggle peacefully, but they couldn’t come to an agreement Richard was not able to take back the Holy Land and returned to England

The Fourth Crusade European Christians set out once again to take back Jerusalem They used ships from Venice to get to the Holy land but couldn’t pay the Venetians when they arrived, so the Crusaders attacked a Christian port city to get the money This caused the pope to excommunicate all of the crusaders, but they continued toward the Holy land When they reached Constantinople, a Christian city, they attacked and ransacked it Overall the Fourth crusade was a terrible failure, as were the five crusades that followed it

Effects of the Crusades The Crusades actually increased trade between the Muslims, Byzantine Empire, and Europe as the crusaders brought back goods from their trips – the European economy grew Many knights and nobles died in the Crusades, and kings took over their lands kings gained more power and control in Europe Muslim knowledge and culture spread into Europe Europeans began to view all non-Christians as enemies