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.

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?