Text 5: The Crusades Topic 7: Medieval Christian Europe (330-1450) Lesson 4: Economic Expansion and Change: The Crusades and After
BELLWORK Why did Pope Urban II agree to help Byzantine emperor Alexius I?
OBJECTIVES Explain the causes and effects of the Crusades Explain why the Byzantine empire collapsed
By 1050, Western Europe was just emerging from centuries of isolation For the first time since the fall of Rome, Western Europeans were strong enough to break out of their narrow world and take the offensive against other lands
Starting in 1096, thousands of Europeans took part in the Crusades,a series of wars in which Christians battled Muslims for control of land in the Middle East During these wars, both sides committed bloody acts
The First Crusade freed Jerusalem from Muslim rule and established a string of European-ruled Crusader states They were surrounded by Muslim-ruled lands, however, and Arab counterattacks reconquered the last European outpost in 1291
Conflict in the Holy Land By the 1050s, the once prosperous Byzantine Empire was facing a serious threat from the Seljuk Turks This area included Jerusalem and other places where Christians believe Jesus had lived and preached The Turks had migrated from Central Asia into the Middle East, where they converted to Islam For centuries, Christians had made pilgrimages to the Holy Land Before long, the Seljuks had overrun most Byzantine lands in Asia Minor and extended their power over the Holy Land The conflict between the Seljuk Turks and the Byzantines disrupted travel to the Holy Land and was threatening the very survival of the Byzantine empire
In 1095, the Byzantine emperor Alexius I urgently asked Pope Urban II for Christian knights to help him fight the Muslim Turks Although Roman popes and Byzantine emperors were longtime rivals, Urban agreed
The Pope Calls for War At the Council of Clermont in 1095, Urban incited bishops and nobles to action calling for a crusade By 1096, thousands of knights were on their way to the Holy Land As the crusading spirit swept through Western Europe, armies of ordinary men and women inspired by fiery preachers also left for the Holy Land, few returned
Why did so many people embark on the Crusades? Religious reasons played a large role Yet many knights hoped to win wealth and land Some crusaders sought to escape troubles at home Others yearned for adventure The pope had mixed motives Increase his power in Europe and perhaps heal the schism, or split, between the Roman and Byzantine churches Saw lands in the Middle East as an outlet for Europe's growing population of knights Sending Christian knights to fight Muslims instead of one another would help ease warfare at home
Waves of Crusades Head Eastward Only the First Crusade came close to achieving its goals After a long and bloody campaign, Christian knights captured Jerusalem in 1099 and killed the Muslim and Jewish residents of the city The crusaders divided their captured lands into four small states, called crusader states
Muslims wanted to destroy these Christian states, prompting new crusades By 1187, Jerusalem fell to Salah al-din, known to Europeans as Saladin On the Third Crusade, Europeans failed to retake Jerusalem After negotiations, though, Saladin did reopen the holy city to Christian pilgrims
Europeans mounted crusades against other Muslim lands, especially in North Africa All ended in defeat During the Fourth Crusade, the crusaders were diverted from fighting Muslims to fighting other Christians
After helping merchants from the northern Italian city of Venice defeat their Byzantine trade rivals in 1204, crusaders captured and looted Constantinople Meanwhile, Muslim armies overran the crusader states By 1291, they had captured the last Christian outpost, the port city of Acre, and killed its Christian residents