The Crusades

The Pope Calls for a Crusade 1.The Saljuq Turks, a warlike group from Central Asia who became Muslims, conquered Palestine and threatened Constantinople. 2.The emperor asked the Pope for help, and Pope Urban II was eager to reclaim the holy land. 3.He called a meeting of the rich and powerful to explain the situation and tell them that God wills them back in power in Palestine. 4.The powerful then gathered a group to advance on the Muslims in the holy lands. These journeys became known as the Crusades. People were able to get out of their normal lives and were promised spiritual and material rewards.

The First Crusade 1.French and Normal nobles led the first crusade, which lasted from 1096 to Most of the separate bands met in Constantinople, where people feared their presence. 3.They made their way south, capturing cities along the way. 4.They captured Jerusalem after a short battle and slaughtered the Muslim and Jewish inhabitants in a terrible massacre. 5.After they divided the land into four counties, they introduced feudalism and subdivided the counties into fiefs, with vassals and lords. For over a century Muslims and Christians peacefully lived and worked together.

The Second Crusade 1.It began in 1147 after the Turks recaptured Edessa and threatened the Kingdom of Jerusalem. 2.French King Louie VII and Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III led armies across Europe to the Holy Land. 3.The two armies had a long and arduous march. They didn’t even meet up until Damascus, which the Turks held. 4.They failed to capture much of anything and returned to Europe two years later as total failures.

The Third Crusade 1.News reached Europe that Muslim leader Salah-al Din, aka Saladin, had recaptured Jerusalem in Europe responded with the Third Crusade from 1189 to The leaders were English King Richard the Lion Heart, French King Philip II, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. 3.The Crusade failed. Barbarossa died in a river in Europe and most of his army turned back. Philip and Richard fought and Philip took his army back to seize English lands in France. 4.Richard stayed and fought, but his armies could not do it alone. He attempted to work out a peace proposal, but had to settle for a few coastal towns and letting Christians visit the Holy Lands freely.

Results of the Crusades 1.From a military standpoint, all crusades save the first were complete failures. 2.Europeans did learn about many things, including the crossbow. 3.Europeans learned new siege tactics, such as undermining walls and using catapults to hurl stones. In addition, they may have learned about gunpowder from the Muslims, who learned from the Chinese. 4.In Europe the departure of many nobles and knights to fight in the Crusades did much to strengthen the power of the kings and the middle classes. This hastened the decline of feudalism, as kings imposed new taxes and led armies drawn from their entire countries. 5.Many nobles died. 6.The First Crusade enhanced papal power, but the rest failed to do so 7.European ideas influenced other Crusaders, and commercial changes happened, including Italian cities becoming more important.