1. Chapter Review THE LATE MIDDLE AGES

2. QUESTION #1 What were the Crusades?

3. The Crusades were a series of wars that were fought between Christians and Muslims over the Holy Land or Palestine. The Holy Land was important to Christians because it was the place where Jesus was born, lived and died. Christians liked to go to the Holy Land on pilgrimages to see these important places. During the Middle Ages, the Holy Land was ruled by Muslims. At first the Muslim rulers of Palestine were tolerant and allowed Christians to visit without any trouble. By the late 1000’s, a new group of Muslims called Turks took control and did not allow the Christians to visit any longer. In 1096, Pope Urban II called for the knights and kings of Europe to unite and to go to the Holy Land to recapture it from the Turkish Muslims. There were 9 different attempts by the Christians to take the Holy Land They win some of these wars but in the end the Christians lose.

4. Question #2 Why were the Crusades important?

5.  The Crusades are important because it began to get Western Europe out of the Middle Ages.  The Middle Ages began because of the Viking raids.  This made people afraid to travel and people generally stayed home on the manors they created.  Because people were afraid to travel, trade decreased during the Middle Ages.  When the Pope calls for the Crusades, people do what he asked of them.  It was a very long journey that would require people to travel in order to get to the Holy Land.  They did it because the Pope told them to. They believed the order came to the Pope from God.  The Crusades forced people who were afraid of travel to get out and travel anyway.  Once in the Holy Land, they realized that travel was no longer that dangerous.  They also saw a lot of new goods that they wanted to bring home.  All of this is going to lead to more travel, more trading and an end to the Middle Ages!

6. Question #3 Who is the Pope? The Pope is the leader of the Roman Catholic church

7. Question #4 What caused the black death? Fleas that had bitten an infected rat and then bit a human directly after, causing infected blood of the rat to get into the human’s blood stream.