Crash Course World History #15

The Crusades

What were the Crusades?

The Crusades were a series of military expeditions from parts of Europe to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.

What caused the first Crusade?

Originally, the Islamic Empire didn’t mind Christians and Jews, and Christian pilgrimage boosted the economy.

When the Seljuk Turks moved in, they sacked the holy cities and made it harder for Christians to pilgrimage.

The Byzantines felt threatened and called upon the West for help.

When and with what did the first Crusade begin?

The first crusade began with a call to arms from Pope Urban II in 1095 AD.

Why did Pope Urban II start the Crusades?

He wanted to unite Europe, and the best way to get people to unite is to give them a common enemy.

According to Pope Urban, what was the focus of the Crusades?

Liberating Jerusalem

Pope Urban II pitched the Crusades as a pilgrimage with a touch of warring on the side.

Who were the Crusaders?

Most of the people who responded to the call to Crusade were poor people, not knights

Most of the nobles who did go crusading were lords of estates

What was the Crusader’s motivations?

To the Crusaders, they were taking up arms to protect Christ and his kingdom

Following preachers like Peter the Hermit, thousands of peasants and nobles volunteered for the First Crusade.

Why did the first Crusade have a rough start?

It had a rough start because pilgrims kept robbing those they encountered

There was no real leader, so there were constant rivalries between nobles

Was the first Crusade successful?

The crusaders were remarkably successful despite the lack of organization

They took Jerusalem

By 1100 AD, European nobles held Antioch and Jerusalem as Latin Christian kingdoms

What was part of the reason the first Crusade was successful?

They succeeded in part because the Sunni Turks did not help the Shia Egyptians

What happened in the second Crusade?

The second crusade was a complete disaster

They lost in Anatolia and at Damascus

They did capture Lisbon, but didn’t make any progress in the Holy Land

Why did the third Crusade start?

The third crusade was a European response to the emergence of the Egyptian Saladin as a new Islamic power

Saladin consolidated his power in Egypt and sought to expand by taking Damascus and eventually Jerusalem

He succeeded, causing Pope Gregory VII to call for a third crusade

Who were the three European Kings that answered the call for a third Crusade?

Philip the Second of France, Richard “Lionheart” the First of England, and Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire

Was the third Crusade a failure?

The crusade was a failure because they didn’t take Jerusalem, but it did change crusading by making Egypt a target

Richard understood that his best chance of taking Jerusalem was to first take Egypt, but he couldn’t convince crusaders to join him because Egypt had no religious value

How many people volunteered for the fourth Crusade, and what was the effect of that on transportation?

35,000+ people volunteered for the fourth Crusade, so the generals decided to go by boat

Where did the Crusaders get the boats, and what happened after?

The Venetians built 500 ships, but only 11,000 crusaders actually made it down to Venice

The crusaders couldn’t pay for the boats, so a deal was struck: help the Venetians capture Zara, and they will ferry the crusaders to Anatolia

The crusaders agreed to help, but the Pope excommunicated them and the Venetians because Zara was a Christian city

Did the Crusaders succeed in taking Zara? What happened next?

The crusaders failed to take Zara, so Byzantine emperor Alexius III promised the Crusaders that he would pay them if they helped him out

What happened to Alexius III?

Alexius was dethroned by Mourtzouphlos, leaving the crusaders stuck in Constantinople with no money

What did the Crusaders do in Constantinople? What was the effect of that?

They sacked Constantinople and retook none of the Holy Land

This legitimized the idea that crusading wasn’t just about pilgrimage, and that any enemies of the Catholic church were fair game

How did the fourth Crusade affect the Byzantine empire?

The fourth crusade also doomed the Byzantine Empire, which never really recovered

Constantinople, a shadow of its former self, was conquered by the Turks in 1453

Did Crusading continue after the fourth Crusade?

Crusading continued throughout the 14th century, mostly with an emphasis on North Africa and not the Holy Land

Were the Crusades a failure or success overall? Why?

Ultimately, the Crusades were a total failure at establishing Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land long term

With the common of the Ottomans, the region remained solidly Muslim, as it mostly is today

They didn’t open up lines of communication between Christians and Muslims, because those lines were already open

The Crusades didn’t bring Europe out of the Middle Ages by offering it contact with the Islamic world

In fact, they drained Europe’s resources