[Author's name]

[Instructor's name]

[Course Number]

[Date]

Crusades

Introduction

At the Council of Clermont in 1095, Pope Urban II preached a crusade to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim control. The First Crusade saw the triumphant capture of Jerusalem in 1099 and the establishment of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Crusaders were attracted by the special privileges and indulgences granted by the Pope to those who took the cross (the symbolic badge worn by crusaders). Many more crusades were called over the next few centuries. These included crusades against Moors in Spain, pagans in the Baltic and heretics in France and even against Catholic monarchs who had offended the Pope. However, the crusade in the East was recognized as the most prestigious crusade. Monarchs such as Richard the Lionheart, Frederick Barbarossa, and St Louis IX all led crusades, but these were ultimately in vain. Jerusalem fell in 1187, and the last remnants of the Latin kingdom in the East were lost in 1291 (Dutch, 12).

Thesis Statement

The Crusades had a great influence on people's devotion because they decided to sacrifice their self for their believes. Crusaders were characterized by taking of vows and the granting of indulgences to those who participated in the events. The Crusades main goal was to fight the external and internal enemies of Christendom for the recovery of Christian property or in defense of the Church or Christian people.

Causes

From the Muslim perspective, the lasting effects of the crusades on the Islamic Middle East were fairly negligible; to many Muslims, they were just episodes in a long-running clash with Christians. However, as one historian has recently pointed out, the crusading movement did have negative effects on the Muslim world, including slowing the conquest of other territories by Islam.

For Europeans, however, the effects of the crusades were more tangible. The channeling of excess energy from Europe to the Middle East made it easier for the French kings and upper nobility to preserve order in their lands. Italian city-states also benefited as they increased their trade with the Muslim world during the campaigns and, in some cases, even after the fall of Acre in 1291. The increased cross-cultural contact generated by the crusades helped introduce Europeans to unfamiliar spices, textile products, and so on. Finance and banking became more sophisticated as a result of the many monetary transactions necessitated by the crusades. The reputation of the papacy often was subject to the whims of those following the campaigns; generally speaking, the successes of the First and Third Crusades enhanced the papacy's prestige, while the failures of the Second Crusade and beyond compromised its standing. Another notable effect of the crusades was the development of historical writing; many medieval authors churned out chronicles, extended histories, and eyewitness accounts of the events they found so remarkable.

Rise of the Crusading Movement

Urban II was able to mount a successful expedition, the First Crusade, for two reasons: He had cultivated good relations with the Byzantine emperor, Alexius I Comnenus (ruled 1081-1118), and he cast his appeal to European knights in the ...