The Crusades

The Crusades - Competing Religions

• . – For Jews - city where King

David ruled and where the great Temple had stood.

– For Christians- city where Jesus had lived, preached, and been crucified.

– For Muslims - where their leader, Mohammed, ascended into heaven

Jerusalem - special city for three religions-

CRUSADES – The Background

• Full of people from all three religions who lived there in peace. Visitors came by the thousands from all over the western world to visit the holy places in Jerusalem.

• Suddenly, in 1071 AD, a group of Muslims called Seljuk Turks, stopped allowing Christian visitors to come into Jerusalem at all .

The Crusades

• Events leading to Crusade #1– Pope Gregory VII planned to reunite Roman

and Byzantine Churches by organizing a holy war from Spain to Asia. He would send the Byzantines an army of western knights, which he would lead himself

– Gregory died before he could pull it off.

The Crusades

• (1095) Byzantine Emperor Alexius asks Pope Urban II for military help against the Turks

Help us Urban – you are our only

hope

Don’t Worry. I will send and army

Why kill fellow Europeans when you can kill strangers called Muslims?

If you die in battle, you will go straight to Heaven – no waiting!

• Nobles rally to Popes call

You can keep any money you find, or land you take

Let’s Get EM!!

Yeah!!!!Lets rock and roll!

I’m going to be RICH!

My sins will all be forgiven

• Peasants rally to call of “Peter the Hermit”• recruited an undisciplined mob of peasants,

including women and children• Thought life would be better in Jerusalem

– After all, how bad can the land of God be?

Not this kind of hermit

The “Other” Army

Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless set out for Jerusalem

We are all following Peter the Hermit.

Next stop – Jerusalem.

Anyone know how to get

there?

Can I bring my goat?

Peter and His Mob

• Byzantines hoped for a well-trained army

What they got was something else

• Byzantines were appalled by Peter's mob.

Mobs steal everything not nailed down.

Pent up peasant frustrations. Byzantium is a very rich place compared to what they are used to.

Peter’s Band of Looters and Thieves

The End of Peter and Company

• Byzantines move them out of Constantinople as fast as possible.

Eventually Peter and his followers get massacred in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) by the Seljuk Turks

Crusading Nobles

• Meanwhile – Nobles gather for a coordinated effort to retake Jerusalem

• Conquer Muslims who had taken over parts of Byzantine Empire.

• Alexius allows crusaders to carve out principalities for themselves from Turkish occupied land• Required each European lord to take an oath of loyalty to

him upon their arrival

Crusading Nobles

• Next Phase of the Operation:• Cross Asia Minor. Conquer Antioch and then take

Jerusalem.• Wholesale rape, pillage and slaughter ensues in

the city.• Read “The Capture of Jerusalem”

The Aftermath

• Eventually, most knights return home to Europe.– Few stay in the Middle East

• Knights bring back goods and ideas found in Middle East

• Jerusalem falls to Muslim forces again

Ideas and “Stuff” brought back from Crusades• Arabic words• Mathematics• Scientific ideas• Engineering and Architectural concepts• Medical knowledge• Geographical knowledge• Goods from Asia and India

– Silk, spices, cotton, pasta, • Great desire to find ways to get to Asia

Effects of the Crusades on Europe

• Increased trade with the Middle East and Byzantine Empire

• Growth of money economy

• Increased power of the monarchs.

• Increased power of the Church

• Wider world view – new inventions / ideas brought back.

• Europeans want more stuff from Asia– Age of Exploration Begins