East Meets West
The Crusades
Role of Church in Middle Ages
• Never was there a time when the Church was so powerful in Western Civilization.
• The Church was led by popes. Priests and nuns converted, gave care to people
Role of Church
• Monks were spiritual leaders (obviously)
• They lived in monasteries that acted like trade schools and YMCAs
Role of Church
• They spent years transcribing the Bible since the printing press wasn’t used in Europe yet.
Churches and Cathedrals during the Middle Ages
Crusade
• The word “crusade” comes from the Spanish cruzade which means “marked with the cross”– Crusaders wore red
crosses on their chests to symbolize their purpose
E. Napp
Many EuropeansJoined the
Crusades. Somejoined for the
promise of Heaven.Others joined
hoping for wealth.
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
Knights
• The establishment of new orders of military monks partially offset these weaknesses
• The Knights of the Hospital of Saint John and the Knights Templar began by protecting and nursing pilgrims but gravitated to active attacks on Moslem strongholds
• Both orders would come to play prominent roles in the battles of the Crusades and earned great reputations as warriors
Seal of the Knights Templar
Why was Constantinople so important geographically?
The Arab world was relatively peaceful and civilized at the time. •An Arab gentleman was expected to be a…
• poet•philosopher •and a warrior.
•Jerusalem itself was a multicultural city. •Jews, Muslims and Christians all lived together harmoniously. •Christians on pilgrimages to Jerusalem were freely allowed across to the Holy Places
•When the Crusades arrived in Northern Turkey, the carnage began. •Lycea was captured and looted.
•babies cut to pieces; •old people were tortured. •Unfortunately, most of the inhabitants of Lycea were actually Christians…
The Arab World
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
The First Crusade
• Administrative rule of Jerusalem proved problematic
• Eventually the kingdom was parceled into practically independent fiefs and barons assumed all ownership of land, reducing the former owners to the condition of serfs
• The kingdom was further weakened by the ceding of several ports to the Italian city-states in exchange for naval support and seaborne supplies
• The native Christian population came to look back on the era of Moslem rule as a golden age
Godfrey served as the first ruler of Jerusalem
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.
Saladin• In 1175, Saladin brought Egypt
and Moslem Syria under one rule• In 1185, he signed a four-year
truce with the Latin kingdom but the Christians violated it by attacking a Moslem caravan and capturing Saladin’s sister
• He declared a holy war against the Christians and captured Jerusalem in 1187– His terms were much more
generous than those of the Crusaders in 1099
Saladin: one of the few Crusade personalities generally
described favorably by both Eastern and Western sources
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.
Crusades died out
Lack of interest, rising European prosperity Repeated military defeats Discredited by "crusades" against Christians
Impact 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.
Impact 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.
Results of the Crusades• Failures
– Muslim civilization had been victorious over Christian civilization
– Indigenous eastern Christians were caught in the middle between Crusaders and Muslims, and many who were outraged by the excesses of the Crusaders or who wanted to avoid persecution by Muslim leaders who saw them as collaborators with the Crusaders converted to Islam
• In fact, the Crusades ironically proved instrumental in making the eastern Mediterranean predominantly Muslim.
Results of the Crusades
• Successes– Serfs had used the Crusades to leave their lands
and many found new opportunities– The Turkish capture of Constantinople was
delayed until 1453– The Muslims, even though victorious, had
themselves been weakened, and fell more easily when the Mongols attacked
– Trade and exploration were enhanced
Trade• Italian traders obviously
benefited from supplying the Crusades while they were going on, but they also saw an opportunity to expand their market by establishing direct trade with the Muslim world
• The lucrative trade provided great profit to the Italian city-states and ultimately provided the economic basis for the Italian Renaissance we’ll discuss in Lesson 24
Lorenzo de Medici was part of a family that ruled Florence and
served as bankers for the Crusades and patrons of the Renaissance
Trade
• The most important trade item were spices– Other items included cotton,
linen, dates, coral, pearls, porcelain, silk, and metal goods
• Damascus was a key center for industry and commerce and a stopping point for pilgrims on their way to Mecca
Egyptian scarf or garment fragment ca 1395
Trade• European Christians also became exposed to new ideas as
they traveled throughout the Mediterranean basin– The works of Aristotle– Islamic science and astronomy– “Arabic” numerals which the Muslims had borrowed
from India– Techniques for paper production which the Muslims
had learned from China• While the Crusades may have largely failed as military
adventures, they helped encourage the reintegration of western Europe into the larger economy of the western hemisphere
The Reconquista of Spain
• The Christians did have better success wresting Sicily and Spain from the Muslims in actions separate from the Crusades
• Sicily was regained relatively easily– Moslems had conquered it in the
9th Century but in the 1090, after about 20 years of fighting, Norman warriors returned it to Christian hands
• Spain would be a bit more of a challenge
The Reconquista of Spain
• By 1150 Christians had recaptured Lisbon and controlled over half the peninsula
• These successes lured reinforcements from England and France and a new round of campaigning in the 13th Century brought all but Granada into Christian hands
• In 1492, Christian forces conquered Granada and the Reconquista was complete
Immediate Impact of the Reconquista
• After the successful Reconquista, the devoutly Christian rulers of Spain and Portugal were eager to dominate the Islamic states in North Africa and to convert non-Christians
• The desire to spread Christianity would be one of the motives for the European explorations.
1492 was the year of both the completion of the Reconquista and
Columbus’ voyage to the New World
E. Napp
Questions for Reflection:
• Why were Christians upset that Muslims had gained control of the Holy Land?
• Define pilgrim.
• What is a crusade?
• Why did the Pope call for a Crusade?
• Why do historians call the Crusades “a successful failure”?
• What was an effect of the Crusades?