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Crusades

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Pre 1900 Military;
Religious disputes

                                     Crusades
   First – People's – German – 1101 – Second – Third – Fourth –
   Albigensian – Children's – Fifth – Sixth – Seventh – Shepherds' –
   Eighth – Ninth – Aragonese – Alexandrian – Nicopolis – Northern –
   Hussite – Varna

   The Crusades were a series of military campaigns conducted in the name
   of Christendom and usually sanctioned by the Pope. They were military
   campaigns of a religious character typically characterized as being
   waged against pagans, heretics, Muslims or those under the ban of
   excommunication. When originally conceived, the aim was to recapture
   Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Muslims while supporting the
   Byzantine Empire against the " ghazwat" of the Seljuq expansion into
   Anatolia. The fourth crusade however was diverted and resulted in the
   conquest of Constantinople. Later crusades were launched against
   various targets outside of the Levant for a mixture of religious,
   economic, and political reasons, such as the Albigensian Crusade, the
   Aragonese Crusade, and the Northern Crusades.

   Beyond the medieval military events, the word "crusade" has evolved to
   have multiple meanings and connotations. For additional meanings, see
   usage of the term "crusade" below and/or the dictionary definition.

Historical context

          It is necessary to look for the origin of a crusading ideal in
          the struggle between Christians and Muslims in Spain and
          consider how the idea of a holy war emerged from this
          background. — Norman F. Cantor

Western European origins

   The origins of the crusades lie in developments in Western Europe
   earlier in the Middle Ages, as well as the deteriorating situation of
   the Byzantine Empire in the east, due to a new wave of Turkish Muslim
   attacks. The breakdown of the Carolingian Empire in the later 9th
   century, combined with the relative stabilisation of local European
   borders after the Christianisation of the Vikings, Slavs, and Magyars,
   had as one side-effect produced a large class of armed warriors whose
   energies were misplaced fighting one another and terrorizing the local
   populace. The Church tried to stem this violence with the Peace and
   Truce of God movements, which was somewhat successful, but trained
   warriors always sought an outlet for their violence and opportunities
   for territorial expansion were becoming less attractive for large
   segments of the nobility. One exception was the Reconquista in Spain
   and Portugal, which at times occupied Iberian knights and some
   mercenaries from elsewhere in Europe in the fight against the Islamic
   Moors, who had attacked and successfully overrun most of the Iberian
   Peninsula over the preceding two centuries.
   Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, where he preached an
   impassioned sermon to take back the Holy Land.
   Enlarge
   Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, where he preached an
   impassioned sermon to take back the Holy Land.

   In 1009, the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah sacked the pilgrimage
   hospice in Jerusalem and destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
   al-Hakim's successors allowed it to be rebuilt later by the Byzantine
   emperor, but this event was remembered in Europe and may have helped
   spark the crusades. In 1063, Pope Alexander II had given papal blessing
   to Iberian Christians in their wars against the Muslims, granting both
   a papal standard (the vexillum sancti Petri) and an indulgence to those
   who were killed in battle. Pleas from the Byzantine Emperors, now
   threatened under by the Seljuks, thus fell on ready ears. These
   occurred in 1074, from Emperor Michael VII to Pope Gregory VII and in
   1095, from Emperor Alexius I Comnenus to Pope Urban II.

   The Crusades were, in part, an outlet for an intense religious piety
   which rose up in the late 11th century among the lay public. A crusader
   would, after pronouncing a solemn vow, receive a cross from the hands
   of the pope or his legates, and was thenceforth considered a "soldier
   of the Church". This was due in part to the Investiture Controversy,
   which had started around 1075 and was still on-going during the First
   Crusade. Christendom had emerged as a political conception that
   supposed the union of all peoples and sovereigns under the direction of
   the pope and had been greatly affected by the Investiture Controversy;
   as both sides tried to marshal public opinion in their favour, people
   became personally engaged in a dramatic religious controversy. The
   result was an awakening of intense Christian piety and public interest
   in religious affairs. This was further strengthened by religious
   propaganda, advocating Just War in order to retake the Holy Land, which
   included Jerusalem (where the death, resurrection and ascension into
   heaven of Jesus took place according to Christian theology) and Antioch
   (the first Christian city), from the Muslims. All of this eventually
   manifested in the overwhelming popular support for the First Crusade,
   and the religious vitality of the 12th century.

Middle Eastern situation

   This background in the Christian West must be contrasted with that in
   the Muslim East. Muslim presence in the Holy Land goes back to the
   initial Arab conquest of Palestine in the 7th century. This did not
   interfere much with pilgrimage to Christian holy sites or the security
   of monasteries and Christian communities in the Holy Land of
   Christendom, and western Europeans were not much concerned with the
   loss of far-away Jerusalem when, in the ensuing decades and centuries,
   they were themselves faced with invasions by Muslims and other hostile
   non-Christians, such as the Vikings and Magyars. However, the Muslim
   armies' successes were putting strong pressure on the Eastern Orthodox
   Byzantine Empire.

   The turning point in western attitudes towards the east came in the
   year 1009, when the Fatimid caliph of Cairo, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, had
   the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem destroyed. His successor
   permitted the Byzantine Empire to rebuild it under stringent
   circumstances, and pilgrimage was again permitted, but many reports
   began to circulate in the West about the cruelty of Muslims toward
   Christian pilgrims; these accounts from returning pilgrims then played
   an important role in the development of the crusades later in the
   century.

After the First Crusade

   On a popular level, the first crusades unleashed a wave of impassioned,
   personally felt pious Christian fury that was expressed in the
   massacres of Jews that accompanied the movement of the Crusader mobs
   through Europe, as well as the violent treatment of "schismatic"
   Orthodox Christians of the east. The violence against the Orthodox
   Christians culminated in the sack of Constantinople in 1204, in which
   most of the Crusading armies took part. It should be noted, however
   that during many of the attacks on Jews, local Bishops and Christians
   made attempts to protect Jews from the mobs that were passing through.
   Jews were often offered sanctuary in churches and other Christian
   buildings, but the mobs broke in and killed them anyway.

   The 13th century crusades never expressed such a popular fever, and
   after Acre fell for the last time in 1291, and after the extermination
   of the Occitan Cathars in the Albigensian Crusade, the crusading ideal
   became devalued by Papal justifications of political and territorial
   aggressions within Catholic Europe.

   The last crusading order of knights to hold territory were the Knights
   Hospitaller. After the final fall of Acre, they took control of the
   island of Rhodes, and in the sixteenth century, were driven to Malta.
   These last crusaders were finally unseated by Napoleon Bonaparte in
   1798.

A list of the crusades

   A traditional numbering scheme for the crusades gives us nine during
   the 11th to 13th centuries, as well as other smaller crusades that are
   mostly contemporaneous and unnumbered. There were frequent "minor"
   crusades throughout this period, not only in Palestine, but also in the
   Iberian Peninsula and central Europe, against not only Muslims, but
   also Christian heretics and personal enemies of the Papacy or other
   powerful monarchs. Such "crusades" continued into the 16th century,
   until the Renaissance and Reformation when the political and religious
   climate of Europe was significantly different to that of the Middle
   Ages. The following is a list of crusades.

First Crusade 1095–1099

   Full article: First Crusade

   After Byzantine emperor Alexius I called for help with defending his
   empire against the Seljuk Turks, in 1095 at the Council of Clermont,
   Pope Urban II called upon all Christians to join a war against the
   Turks, a war which would count as full penance. Crusader armies managed
   to defeat two substantial Turkish forces at Dorylaeum and at Antioch,
   finally marching to Jerusalem with only a fraction of their original
   forces. In 1099, they took Jerusalem by assault and massacred the
   population. As a result of the First Crusade, several small Crusader
   states were created, notably the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Crusade of 1101

   Full article: Crusade of 1101

   Following this crusade there was a second, less successful wave of
   crusaders. This is known as the crusade of 1101 and may be considered
   an adjunct of the first crusade.

Second Crusade 1145–1149

   Full article: Second Crusade

   After a period of relative peace, in which Christians and Muslims
   co-existed in the Holy Land, Muslims conquered the town of Edessa. A
   new crusade was called for by various preachers, most notably by
   Bernard of Clairvaux. French and German armies, under the Kings Louis
   VII and Conrad III respectively, marched to Jerusalem in 1147, but
   failed to accomplish any major successes, and indeed endangered the
   survival of the Crusader states with a strategically foolish attack on
   Damascus. By 1150, both leaders had returned to their countries without
   any result.

Third Crusade 1189–1192

   Full article: Third Crusade

   Also known as the Kings' Crusade. In 1187, Saladin, Sultan of Egypt,
   recaptured Jerusalem. Pope Gregory VIII called for a crusade, which was
   led by several of Europe's most important leaders: Philip II of France,
   Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick
   drowned in Cilicia in 1190, leaving an unstable alliance between the
   English and the French. Philip left, in 1191, after the Crusaders had
   recaptured Acre from the Muslims. The Crusader army headed down the
   coast of the Mediterranean Sea. They defeated the Muslims near Arsuf
   and were in sight of Jerusalem. However, the inability of the Crusaders
   to thrive in the locale due to inadequate food and water resulted in an
   empty victory. Richard left the following year after establishing a
   truce with Saladin. On Richard's way home, his ship was wrecked and he
   ended up in Austria, where his enemy, Duke Leopold, captured him. The
   Duke delivered Richard to Emperor Henry VI, who held the King for
   ransom. By 1197, Henry felt himself ready for a Crusade, but he died in
   the same year of malaria. Richard I died during fighting in Europe and
   never returned to the Holy Land.

Fourth Crusade 1201–1204

   Full article: Fourth Crusade

   The Fourth Crusade was initiated in 1202 by Pope Innocent III, with the
   intention of invading the Holy Land through Egypt. The Venetians, under
   Doge Enrico Dandolo, gained control of this crusade and diverted it
   first to the Christian city of Zara ( Zadar), then to Constantinople,
   where they attempted to place a Byzantine exile on the throne. After a
   series of misunderstandings and outbreaks of violence, the Crusaders
   sacked the city in 1204.

Albigensian Crusade

   Full article: Albigensian Crusade

   The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical
   Cathars of southern France. It was a decades-long struggle that had as
   much to do with the concerns of northern France to extend its control
   southwards as it did with heresy. In the end, both the Cathars and the
   independence of southern France were exterminated.

Children's Crusade

   Full article: Children's Crusade

   The Children's Crusade is a series of possibly fictitious or
   misinterpreted events of 1212. The story is that an outburst of the old
   popular enthusiasm led a gathering of children in France and Germany,
   which Pope Innocent III interpreted as a reproof from heaven to their
   unworthy elders. The leader of the French army, Stephen, led 30,000
   children. The leader of the German army, Nicholas, led 7,000 children.
   None of the children actually reached the Holy Land; they were either
   sold as slaves, settled along the route to Jerusalem, or died of hunger
   during the journey.

Fifth Crusade 1217–1221

   Full article: Fifth Crusade

   By processions, prayers, and preaching, the Church attempted to set
   another crusade on foot, and the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215)
   formulated a plan for the recovery of the Holy Land. In the first
   phase, a crusading force from Hungary, Austria joined the forces of the
   king of Jerusalem and the prince of Antioch to take back Jerusalem. In
   the second phase, crusader forces achieved a remarkable feat in the
   capture of Damietta in Egypt in 1219, but under the urgent insistence
   of the papal legate, Pelagius, they proceeded to a foolhardy attack on
   Cairo, and an inundation of the Nile compelled them to choose between
   surrender and destruction.

Sixth Crusade 1228–1229

   Full article: Sixth Crusade

   Emperor Frederick II had repeatedly vowed a crusade, but failed to live
   up to his words, for which he was excommunicated by the Pope in 1228.
   He nonetheless set sail from Brindisi, landed in Palestine and through
   diplomacy he achieved unexpected success, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and
   Bethlehem being delivered to the Crusaders for a period of ten years.
   Louis IX attacks Damietta
   Louis IX attacks Damietta

Seventh Crusade 1248–1254

   Full article: Seventh Crusade

   The papal interests represented by the Templars brought on a conflict
   with Egypt in 1243, and in the following year a Khwarezmian force
   summoned by the latter stormed Jerusalem. The Crusaders were drawn into
   battle at La Forbie in Gaza. The Crusader army and its Bedouin
   mercenaries were outnumbered by Baibars' force of Khwarezmian tribesmen
   and were completely defeated within forty-eight hours. This battle is
   considered by many historians to have been the death knell to the
   Kingdom of Outremer. Although this provoked no widespread outrage in
   Europe as the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 had done, Louis IX of France
   organized a crusade against Egypt from 1248 to 1254, leaving from the
   newly constructed port of Aigues-Mortes in southern France. It was a
   failure and Louis spent much of the crusade living at the court of the
   Crusader kingdom in Acre. In the midst of this crusade was the first
   Shepherds' Crusade in 1251.

Eighth Crusade 1270

   Full article: Eighth Crusade

   The eighth Crusade was organized by Louis IX in 1270, again sailing
   from Aigues-Mortes, initially to come to the aid of the remnants of the
   Crusader states in Syria. However, the crusade was diverted to Tunis,
   where Louis spent only two months before dying. The Eighth Crusade is
   sometimes counted as the Seventh, if the Fifth and Sixth Crusades are
   counted as a single crusade. The Ninth Crusade is sometimes also
   counted as part of the Eighth.

Ninth Crusade 1271–1272

   Full article: Ninth Crusade

   The future Edward I of England undertook another expedition in 1271,
   after having accompanied Louis on the Eighth Crusade. He accomplished
   very little in Syria and retired the following year after a truce. With
   the fall of Antioch (1268), Tripoli (1289), and Acre (1291), the last
   traces of the Christian rule in Syria disappeared.

Northern Crusades (Baltic and Germany)

   The Teutonic knights in Pskov in 1240 as depicted in Sergei
   Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky (1938).
   Enlarge
   The Teutonic knights in Pskov in 1240 as depicted in Sergei
   Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky (1938).

   Full article: Northern Crusades

   The Crusades in the Baltic Sea area and in Central Europe were efforts
   by (mostly German) Christians to subjugate and convert the peoples of
   these areas to Christianity. These Crusades ranged from the 12th
   century, contemporaneous with the Second Crusade, to the 16th century.

   Between 1232 and 1234, there was a crusade against the Stedingers. This
   crusade was special, because the Stedingers were not heathens or
   heretics, but fellow Roman Catholics. They were free Frisian farmers
   who resented attempts of the count of Oldenburg and the archbishop
   Bremen-Hamburg to make an end to their freedoms. The archbishop
   excommunicated them and the pope declared a crusade in 1232. The
   Stedingers were defeated in 1234.

Other crusades

Crusade against the Tatars

   In the 14th century, Khan Tokhtamysh combined the Blue and White Hordes
   forming the Golden Horde. It seemed that the power of the Golden Horde
   had begun to rise, but in 1389, Tokhtamysh made the disastrous decision
   of waging war on his former master, the great Tamerlane. Tamerlane's
   hordes rampaged through southern Russia, crippling the Golden Horde's
   economy and practically wiping out its defenses in those lands.

   After losing the war, Tokhtamysh was then dethroned by the party of
   Khan Temur Kutlugh and Emir Edigu, supported by Tamerlane. When
   Tokhtamysh asked Vytautas the Great for assistance in retaking the
   Horde, the latter readily gathered a huge army which included
   Lithuanians, Ruthenians, Russians, Mongols, Moldavians, Poles,
   Romanians and Teutonic knights.

   In 1398, the huge army moved from Moldavia and conquered the southern
   steppe all the way to the Dnieper River and northern Crimea. Inspired
   by their great successes, Vytautas declared a 'Crusade against the
   Tatars' with Papal backing. Thus, in 1399, the army of Vytautas once
   again moved on the Horde. His army met the Horde's at the Vorskla
   River, slightly inside Lithuanian territory.

   Although the Lithuanian army was well equipped with cannons, it could
   not resist a rear attack from Edigu's reserve units. Vytautas hardly
   escaped alive. Many princes of his kin—possibly as many as 20—were
   killed (as for example, Stefan Musat, Prince of Moldavia and two of his
   brothers, while a fourth was badly injured ), and the victorious Tatars
   besieged Kiev. "And the Christian blood flowed like water, up to the
   Kievan walls," as one chronicler put it. Meanwhile, Temur Kutlugh died
   from the wounds received in the battle, and Tokhtamysh was killed by
   one of his own men.

Crusades in the Balkans

   To counter the expanding Ottoman Empire, several crusades were launched
   in the XV. century. The most notable are:
     * the Crusade of Nicopolis (1396) organized by Sigismund of Luxemburg
       king of Hungary culminated in the Battle of Nicopolis. It is often
       called the last of the crusades.
     * the Crusade of Varna (1444) led by the Polish-Hungarian king
       Władysław Warneńczyk ended in the Battle of Varna
     * and the Crusade of 1456 organized to lift the Siege of Belgrade led
       by John Hunyadi and Giovanni da Capistrano

The Aragonese Crusade

   The Aragonese Crusade or Crusade of Aragón was declared by Pope Martin
   IV against the King of Aragón, Peter III the Great, in 1284 and 1285.

The Alexandrian Crusade

   The Alexandrian Crusade of October 1365 was a minor seaborne Crusade
   against Muslim Alexandria led by Peter I of Cyprus. His motivation was
   at least as commercial as religious. It had limited success.

The Hussite Crusade

   The Hussite Crusade(s), also known as the " Hussite Wars," or the
   "Bohemian Wars," involved the military actions against and amongst the
   followers of Jan Hus in Bohemia in the period 1420 to circa 1434. The
   Hussite Wars were arguably the first European war in which hand-held
   gunpowder weapons such as muskets made a decisive contribution. The
   Hussite warriors were basically infantry, and their many defeats of
   larger armies with heavily armoured knights helped effect the infantry
   revolution. In the end, it was an inconclusive war.

The Swedish Crusades

   The Swedish conquest of Finland in the Middle Ages has traditionally
   been divided into three "crusades": the First Swedish Crusade around
   1155 CE, the Second Swedish Crusade about 1249 CE and the Third Swedish
   Crusade in 1293 CE.

   The first crusade is purely legendary, and according to most historians
   today, never took place as described in the legend and did not result
   in any ties between Finland and Sweden. For the most part, it was made
   up in the late 13th century to date the Swedish rule in Finland further
   back in time. No historical record has also survived describing the
   second one, but it probably was done and ended up in the concrete
   conquest of southwestern Finland. The third one was against Novgorod,
   and is properly documented by both parties of the conflict.

   According to archaeological finds, Finland was largely Christian
   already before the said crusades. Thus the "crusades" can rather be
   seen as ordinary expeditions of conquest whose main target was
   territorial gain. The expeditions were dubbed as actual crusades only
   in the 19th century by the national-romanticist Swedish and Finnish
   historians.

Historical perspectives on the Crusades

Western versus Eastern interpretation

   Western and Eastern historiography present variously different views on
   the Crusades, in large part because "crusade" invokes dramatically
   opposed sets of associations - "crusade" as a valiant struggle for a
   supreme cause, and "crusade" as a byword for barbarism and aggression.
   This contrasting view is not recent, as Christians have in the past
   struggled with the tension of military activity and teachings of Christ
   to "love ones enemies" and to "turn the other cheek". For these
   reasons, the crusades have been controversial even among
   contemporaries.

   Western sources speak of both heroism, faith and honour (emphasized in
   chivalric romance), but also of acts of brutality. Islamic and Orthodox
   Christian chroniclers tell stories of barbarian savagery and brutality.

   Likewise, some modern historians in the west express moral outrage -
   for example Steven Runciman, the leading western historian of the
   Crusades for much of the 20th century, ended his history with a
   resounding condemnation:

          "High ideals were besmirched by cruelty and greed.. the Holy War
          was nothing more than a long act of intolerance in the name of
          God".

1908 Catholic Encyclopedia perspective

   One traditional Catholic perspective is presented in the 1908 version
   of the Catholic Encyclopedia. This viewpoint sees the Crusades as
   defensive wars against Muslim aggression and "Mohammedan tyranny" . The
   1908 Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes its traditional Roman Catholic
   viewpoints on the legacy of the Crusades:


   Crusades

       Notwithstanding their final overthrow, the Crusades hold a very
   important place in the history of the world... It must be said that the
     advantages thus acquired by the popes were for the common safety of
      Christendom. From the outset the Crusades were defensive wars and
       checked the advance of the Mohammedans who, for two centuries,
        concentrated their forces in a struggle against the Christian
   settlements in Syria; hence Europe is largely indebted to the Crusades
     for the maintenance of its independence." [Catholic Encyclopedia ]


   Crusades

   It should be noted that this viewpoint is not the only viewpoint on the
   Crusades to be found in the Roman Catholic tradition.

Eastern Orthodoxy

   Like Muslims, Eastern Orthodox Christians also see the Crusades as
   attacks by "the barbarian West", but centered on the sack of
   Constantinople in 1204. Many relics and artifacts taken from
   Constantinople are still in the West, in the Vatican and elsewhere.
   Disagreement currently exists between modern Turks and Greeks over the
   claimant rights to the Greek Horses on the facade of St. Mark's in
   Venice. The Greeks argue that the frieze is inherently part of Greek
   culture and identity, similar to the "Elgin" Marbles and the Turks
   counter that the freize originated from what is now modern-day
   Istanbul. A picture of Turkish popular history of the Crusades can be
   assembled by compiling text of official Turkish brochures on Crusader
   fortifications in the Aegean coast and coastal islands.

   Countries of Central Europe, despite the fact that they also belonged
   to Western Christianity, were the most skeptical about the idea of
   Crusades. Many cities in Hungary were sacked by passing bands of
   Crusaders; Polish Prince Leszek I the White refused to join a Crusade,
   allegedly because of the lack of mead in Palestine. Later on, Poles
   were themselves subject to conquest from the Crusaders (see Teutonic
   Order), and therefore championed the notion that pagans have the right
   to live in peace and have property rights to their lands (see Pawel
   Wlodkowic).

Popular reputation in Western Europe

   In Western Europe, the Crusades have traditionally been regarded by
   laypeople as heroic adventures, though the mass enthusiasm of common
   people was largely expended in the First Crusade, from which so few of
   their class returned. Today, the " Saracen" adversary is crystallized
   in the lone figure of Saladin; his adversary Richard the Lionheart is,
   in the English-speaking world, the archetypical crusader king, while
   Frederick Barbarossa (illustration, below left) and Louis IX fill the
   same symbolic niche in German and French culture. Even in contemporary
   areas, the crusades and their leaders were romanticized in popular
   literature; the Chanson d'Antioche was a chanson de geste dealing with
   the First Crusade, and the Song of Roland, dealing with the era of the
   similarly romanticized Charlemagne, was directly influenced by the
   experience of the crusades, going so far as to replace Charlemagne's
   historic Basque opponents with Muslims. A popular theme for troubadours
   was the knight winning the love of his lady by going on crusade in the
   east.
   The ever-living Frederick Barbarossa, in his mountain cave: a late 19th
   century German woodcut
   Enlarge
   The ever-living Frederick Barbarossa, in his mountain cave: a late 19th
   century German woodcut

   In the 14th century, Godfrey of Bouillon was united with the Trojan War
   and the adventures of Alexander the Great against a backdrop for
   military and courtly heroics of the Nine Worthies who stood as popular
   secular culture heroes into the 16th century, when more critical
   literary tastes ran instead to Torquato Tasso and Rinaldo and Armida,
   Roger and Angelica. Later, the rise of a more authentic sense of
   history among literate people brought the Crusades into a new focus for
   the Romantic generation in the romances of Sir Walter Scott in the
   early 19th century. Crusading imagery could be found even in the
   Crimean War, in which the United Kingdom and France were allied with
   the Muslim Ottoman Empire, and in World War I, especially Allenby's
   capture of Jerusalem in 1917 (illustration, below right).

   In Spain, the popular reputation of the Crusades is outshone by the
   particularly Spanish history of the Reconquista. El Cid is the central
   figure.

Legacy of the Crusades

   The Crusades had profound and lasting historical impacts.

Europe

   The Crusades have been remembered relatively favourably in western
   Europe (countries which were, at the time of the Crusades, Roman
   Catholic countries). (Nonetheless, there have certainly been many vocal
   critics of the Crusades in Western Europe since the renaissance.)

Politics and culture

   The Crusades had an enormous influence on the European Middle Ages. At
   times, much of the continent was united under a powerful Papacy, but by
   the 14th century, the development of centralized bureaucracies (the
   foundation of the modern nation-state) was well on its way in France,
   England, Burgundy, Portugal, Castile, and Aragon partly because of the
   dominance of the church at the beginning of the crusading era.

   Although Europe had been exposed to Islamic culture for centuries
   through contacts in Iberian Peninsula and Sicily, much knowledge in
   areas such as science, medicine, and architecture, was transferred from
   the Islamic to the western world during the crusade era.

   The military experiences of the crusades also had their effects in
   Europe; for example, European castles became massive stone structures,
   as they were in the east, rather than smaller wooden buildings as they
   had typically been in the past.

   In addition, the Crusades are seen as having opened up European culture
   to the world, especially Asia:


   Crusades

       The Crusades brought about results of which the popes had never
      dreamed, and which were perhaps the most, important of all. They
    re-established traffic between the East and West, which, after having
      been suspended for several centuries, was then resumed with even
     greater energy; they were the means of bringing from the depths of
     their respective provinces and introducing into the most civilized
       Asiatic countries Western knights, to whom a new world was thus
      revealed, and who returned to their native land filled with novel
    ideas... If, indeed, the Christian civilization of Europe has become
     universal culture, in the highest sense, the glory redounds, in no
                      small measure, to the Crusades."

                          [Catholic Encyclopedia ]


   Crusades

   Along with trade, new scientific discoveries and inventions made their
   way east or west. Arabic advances (including the development of
   Algebra, optics, and refinement of engineering) made their way west and
   sped the course of advancement in European universities that led to the
   Renaissance in later centuries.

   The invasions of German crusaders prevented formation of the large
   Lithuanian state incorporating all Baltic nations and tribes. Lithuania
   was destined to become small country and forced to expand to the East
   looking for resources for wars with crusaders.

Trade

   The need to raise, transport and supply large armies led to a
   flourishing of trade throughout Europe. Roads largely unused since the
   days of Rome saw significant increases in traffic as local merchants
   began to expand their horizons. This was not only because the Crusades
   prepared Europe for travel, but rather that many wanted to travel after
   being reacquainted with the products of the Middle East. This also
   aided in the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy, as various Italian
   city-states from the very beginning had important and profitable
   trading colonies in the crusader states, both in the Holy Land and
   later in captured Byzantine territory.

   Increased trade brought many things to Europeans that were once unknown
   or extremely rare and costly. These goods included a variety of spices,
   ivory, jade, diamonds, improved glass-manufacturing techniques, early
   forms of gun powder, oranges, apples, and other Asian crops, and many
   other products.

Wider geo-political effects

   Despite the ultimate defeat in the Middle East, the Crusaders were
   successful in regaining the Iberian Peninsula permanently and slowed
   down the military expansion of Islam.

   The successful international coordination of Crusading forces from
   different countries, and the reduction (not cessation) in fighting
   between Christian monarchs that the crusading ideal encouraged, allowed
   Christian Europe to remain strong in the face of Muslim military
   expansionism. It is therefore likely that a considerable part of modern
   Christian Europe (particularly Spain, Portugal, and the Balkans) would
   be Muslim today had the Crusades not occurred, and it is furthermore
   possible that Christianity might have been largely replaced by Islam
   throughout Europe. (This is one traditional Roman Catholic perspective:
   See below.)

   The achievement of preserving Christian Europe must not, however,
   ignore the eventual fall of the Christian Byzantine Empire, which was
   in large part due to the Fourth Crusade's extreme aggression against
   Eastern Orthodox Christianity, largely at the instigation of the
   infamous Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice and financial backer of the
   Fourth Crusade. The Byzantine lands had been a stable Christian state
   since the fourth century. After the Crusaders took Constantinople in
   1204, the Byzantines never again had as large or strong a state and
   finally fell in 1453.

   Taking into account the fall of the Byzantines, the Crusades could be
   portrayed as the defence of Roman Catholicism against the violent
   expansion of Islam, rather than the defence of Christianity as a whole
   against Islamic expansion. On the other hand, the Fourth Crusade could
   be presented as an anomaly. It is also possible to find a compromise
   between these two points of view, specifically that the Crusades were
   Roman Catholic campaigns which primarily sought to fight Islam to
   preserve Catholicism, and secondarily sought to thereby protect the
   rest of Christianity; in this context, the Fourth Crusade's crusaders
   could have felt compelled to abandon the secondary aim in order to
   retain Dandolo's absolutely essential logistical support in achieving
   the primary aim. Even so, the Fourth Crusade was condemned by the Pope
   of the time, and is now generally remembered throughout Europe as a
   disgraceful failure.

Islamic world

   The crusades had profound but localized effects upon the Islamic world,
   where the equivalents of "Franks" and "Crusaders" remained expressions
   of disdain. Muslims traditionally celebrate Saladin, the Kurdish
   warrior, as a hero against the Crusaders. In the 21st century, some in
   the Arab world, such as the Arab independence movement and Pan-Islamism
   movement, continue to call Western involvement in the Middle East a
   "crusade". The Crusades were regarded by the Islamic world as cruel and
   savage onslaughts by European Christians.

Jewish community

   1250 French Bible illustration depicts Jews (identifiable by Judenhut)
   being massacred by Crusaders
   Enlarge
   1250 French Bible illustration depicts Jews (identifiable by Judenhut)
   being massacred by Crusaders

   The Crusaders' atrocities against Jews in the German and Hungarian
   towns, later also in those of France and England, and in the massacres
   of Jews in Palestine and Syria have become a significant part of the
   history of anti-Semitism, although no Crusade was ever declared against
   Jews. These attacks left behind for centuries strong feelings of ill
   will on both sides. The social position of the Jews in western Europe
   was distinctly worsened, and legal restrictions increased during and
   after the Crusades. They prepared the way for the anti-Jewish
   legislation of Pope Innocent III and formed the turning-point in
   medieval anti-Semitism.

   The Crusading period brought with it many narratives from Jewish
   sources. Among the better-known Jewish narratives are the chronicles of
   Solomon Bar Simson and Rabbi Eliezer bar Nathan, The Narrative of the
   Old Persecutions by Mainz Anonymous, and Sefer Zekhirah, and The Book
   of Remembrance, by Rabbi Ephraim of Bonn.

The Caucasus

   In the Caucasus mountains of Georgia, in the remote highland region of
   Khevsureti, a tribe called the Khevsurs are thought to possibly be
   direct descendants of a party of crusaders, who got separated from a
   larger army and have remained in isolation with some of the crusader
   culture intact. Into the 20th century, relics of armor, weaponry and
   chain mail were still being used and passed down in such communities.
   Russian serviceman and ethnographer Arnold Zisserman who spent 25 years
   (1842–67) in the Caucasus, believed the exotic group of Georgian
   highlanders were descendants of the last Crusaders based on their
   customs, language, art and other evidence. American traveler Richard
   Halliburton (1900–1939) saw and recorded the customs of the tribe in
   1935.

Etymology and use of the term "crusade"

   The crusades were never referred to as such by their participants. The
   original crusaders were known by various terms, including fideles
   Sancti Petri (the faithful of St. Peter) or milites Christi (knights of
   Christ). They saw themselves as undertaking an iter, a journey, or a
   peregrinatio, a pilgrimage, though pilgrims were usually forbidden from
   carrying arms. Like pilgrims, each crusader swore a vow (a votus), to
   be fulfilled on successfully reaching Jerusalem, and they were granted
   a cloth cross (crux) to be sewn into their clothes. This "taking of the
   cross", the crux, eventually became associated with the entire journey;
   the word "crusade" (coming into English from the French croisade, the
   Italian crociata, or the Portuguese cruzada) developed from this.

   Since the 17th century, the term "crusade" has carried a connotation in
   the West of being a righteous campaign, usually to "root out evil", or
   to fight for a just cause. In a non-historical common or theological
   use, "crusade" has come to have a much broader emphatic or religious
   meaning —substantially removed from "armed struggle."

   In a broader sense, "crusade" can be used, always in a rhetorical and
   metaphorical sense, to identify as righteous any war that is given a
   religious justification.

   Ardent activists may also refer to their causes as "crusades," as in
   the "Crusade against Adult Illiteracy," or a "Crusade against
   Littering." In recent years, however, the use of "crusade" as a
   positive term has become less frequent in order to avoid giving offense
   to Muslims or others offended by the term. The term may also
   sarcastically or pejoratively characterize the zealotry of agenda
   promoters, for example with the monicker "Public Crusader" or the
   campaigns "Crusade against abortion," and the "Crusade for prayer in
   public schools."

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