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East Meets West
The Crusades
Causes: Adventure
 After Christianization of the
Vikings, Slavs, and Magyars there
was an entire class of warriors who
now had very little to do but fight
amongst themselves and terrorize
the peasant population.
 A plea for help from the Byzantine
Emperor Alexius I in opposing
Muslim attacks thus appealed to
their sense of adventure.
Causes: Religious Piety
Intense Religious Piety
 Due in part to the Investiture Controversy
(a significant conflict between secular and
religious powers over the issue of who
would control appointments of church
officials).
 People became personally engaged in the
dramatic religious controversy
 The Results:
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Intense Christian piety
Public interest in religious affairs
Popular support for the First Crusade
The religious vitality of the 12th century
Emperor Henry IV at the
Feet of Pope Gregory VII
Causes: Papal Politics
Roman-Byzantine Rivalry
 Cluniac (Benedictine) reform
caused the church in the West to
be more attentive to business and
provided impetus to attempt to
reassert control
 The Great Schism, 1064, was
a division of Christianity into
Eastern Orthodox and Roman
Catholic. The primary cause was
a dispute over papal authority.
Causes: European Expansionism
 In the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William
the Conqueror (from Normandy) defeated
England and brought unity and strength to
that country.
 After the capture of Toledo from the
Muslims in 1087, it became the residence
of the kings of Castile and the
ecclesiastical center of the whole of Spain
 The Normans captured Sicily from the
Muslims in 1091 and paved the way for
the unification of that country.
Causes: Muslim Advances
Events in Muslim World
 The Battle of Manzikert,
1071, resulted in the
defeat of the Byzantine
Empire and the capture of
the Emperor by the Seljuk
Turks (Muslims).
 The Byzantines also lost
Anatolia to the Turks.
 The Turks disrupted
pilgrim traffic.
Call for a Crusade
Pope Urban II called for
a Crusade in 1095
Objectives
 Drive Turks from Anatolia
 Obligate the Byzantines
 Provide occasion for healing
Great Schism on Rome's terms
 Capture Holy Land
Major Events of Crusades
 First Crusade 1097-1098
 Achieved all major objectives
in Holy Land
 Turkish threat blunted, though
not eliminated
 Area not strategic to Muslims,
could have been held indefinitely
with a little skill.
 Initial gains lost through
diplomatic bungling.
 Crusaders attempted to
destabilize neighbors
Major Events of Crusades

Second Crusade, 1147-1148
 Military failure, discredits
Crusaders as military threat

Third 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 Muslim side.
Major Events of Crusades
Fourth Crusade, 1199-1204
 Western-Greek relations always
strained, mutual contempt.
 To finance crusade, Crusaders
worked for Venetians
 Crusaders sacked 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

Fifth Crusade, 1218-1219
 Captured Damietta, swapped for Jerusalem
 Muslims agreed
 Crusaders tried to conquer Egypt,
were routed

Sixth 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

Seventh Crusade, 1248-1254
 Led by Louis IX of France
 Nearly an exact repeat of the Fifth Crusade

Eighth 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?
The Crusades Died Out
Lack of interest, rising
European prosperity
Repeated military defeats
Discredited by “Crusades"
against Christians
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.
 Muslim 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.
References

Dutch, Steven I. 13 Dec. 2001. University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. 22 Sept. 2005
<http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/WestTechPPT/Crusades.ppt>.
 The Crusades." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 23 Sept. 2005. Wikipedia, the
Free Encyclopedia. 24 Sept. 2005
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades#Historical_background>.
 The Church and the Crusades." Medieval Crusades. 24 Sept. 2005
http://www.medievalcrusades.com>.