East Meets West

The Crusades

By Sanduleanu Dimitrie
Contents

 Causes
 Europe 1000-1100
 Call for a crusade
 Crusades map
 Major events of crusades
 The seven crusades
 Crusades die out
 Effects of crusades
 Conclusion
The Crusades: Causes

European Expansionism
· Conversion of Vikings and Magyars removes
pressure on Europe
· Agricultural advances increase food supply
· Battle of Hastings, 1066
· Capture of Toledo from Moslems, 1087
· Capture of Sicily from Moslems, 1091
Europe 1000-1100
The Crusades: Causes

Roman-Byzantine Rivalry
· Great Schism, 1064
· Cluniac (Benedictine) Reform causes church in
West to be more attentive to business and
provides impetus to attempts to reassert control
The Crusades: Causes

Events in Moslem World

· Battle of Manzikert, 1071.
· Byzantines lose Anatolia to Turks.
· Loss foreshadows eventual end of Byzantine
Empire.
· Turks disrupt pilgrim traffic.
Call for a Crusade

· Urban II calls for Crusade, 1095

· Objectives
· Drive Turks from Anatolia
· Obligate the Byzantines
· Provide occasion for healing Great
Schism on Rome's terms
· Capture Holy Land
Crusades map
Major Events of Crusades

· I Crusade 1097-1098
· Achieves all major objectives in Holy Land
· Turkish threat blunted, though not
eliminated
· Area not strategic to Moslems, could have
been held indefinitely with a little skill.
· Initial gains lost through diplomatic
bungling.
· Crusaders attempt to destabilize
neighbors
Major Events of Crusades

· II Crusade, 1147-1148
· Military failure, discredits Crusaders as military
threat
· III Crusade, 1189-1191
· Well-known in literature (Robin Hood)
· Involved Richard I of England, Phillip II of
France, Frederick I of Holy Roman Empire
· Saladin on Moslem side.
Major Events of Crusades

IV Crusade, 1199-1204
· Western-Greek relations always
strained, mutual contempt.
· To finance crusade, Crusaders
work for Venetians
· Crusaders sack Constantinople,
1204
· Chance to heal Great Schism
utterly lost.
· In 1453, when attacked by Turks,
Byzantines preferred surrender to
asking Rome for aid.
Major Events of Crusades

 V Crusade 1218-1219
 Capture Damietta, swap for Jerusalem
 Moslems agree
 Crusaders try to conquer Egypt, are routed
 VI Crusade 1229
 Frederick II of Germany did little fighting and a lot of
negotiation
 Treaty gave the Crusaders Jerusalem and all the other
holy cities and a truce of ten years
 He was widely condemned for conducting the Crusade
by negotiating rather than fighting.
Major Events of Crusades

 VII Crusade 1248-1254

 Led by Louis IX of France
 Nearly an exact repeat of the Fifth Crusade
 VIII Crusade 1270
 Led by Louis IX of France
 Louis’ brother, Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, had
strategic plans of his own and diverted the expedition
to Tunisia, where Louis died.
 The last Crusader cities on the mainland of Palestine
fell in 1291
 One small island stronghold lasted until 1303.
Where else in military history
can we find a war that was
won four times and still lost?
Crusades died out

· Lack of interest, rising European

prosperity
· Repeated military defeats
· Discredited by "crusades" against
Christians (e.g., Albigensians)
Effects of Crusades

· Fatal weakening of Byzantine Empire

· Vast increase in cultural horizons for many
Europeans.
· Stimulated Mediterranean trade.
· Need to transfer large sums of money for troops
and supplies led to development of banking
techniques.
· Rise of heraldic emblems, coats of arms
· Romantic and imaginative literature.
Effects of Crusades

· Knowledge introduced to Europe

· Heavy stone masonry, construction of castles
and stone churches.
· Siege technology, tunneling, sapping.
· Moslem minarets adopted as church spires
· Weakening of nobility, rise of merchant
classes
· Enrichment was primarily from East to
West--Europe had little to give in return.
Conclusion
When judged by narrow military standards, the Crusades were a failure. What was gained
so quickly was slowly but steadily lost. On the other hand, to hold territory under a
Christian banner so far from home, given the contemporary conditions of transport and
communication, was impressive.
The taking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade had been just short of fatal to the
Byzantine Empire, and it cast a blemish on the movement in the West, where there were
critics of the whole concept of armed Crusades. While Constantinople was not taken by the
Turks until 1453, the Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade was but a shell of its
former self.
For many years, scholars were inclined to give the Crusades credit for making Western
Europe more cosmopolitan.. Extreme statements of this view held that the Crusades
brought Europe out of the provincialism of the Dark Ages.
The most important effect of the Crusades was economic. The Italian cities prospered from
the transport of Crusaders and replaced Byzantines and Muslims as merchant-traders in
the Mediterranean. Trade passed through Italian hands to Western Europe at a handsome
profit. This commercial power became the economic base of the Italian Renaissance.
Any questions?