Introduction
The crusades are considered to be one of the major events within the history of Christianity that shaped medieval Europe and set the vector of its development for a long time forward. The original goal behind these armed expeditions that had been taking place in Europe for two centuries was to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims and the Jews in the name of Christ. The impact of these events is hard to underestimate: the consequences were the collapse of Byzantium and the intensification of religious intolerance and troubled relations between Christianity and Islam. As one of the fundamental events in the history of the West, the crusades had a fundamental influence on world history as a whole, as they shaped the character of further relations of the West with the Muslim Middle East and the Orthodox East. Despite the fact that these events took place nine hundred years ago, they seem to cast a shadow over the world even today.
The course of the events
For a long time being, the adherents of the crusades referred to them as the holy wars that were to be fought at the behest of God to defend the holy lands. In 1095, Pope Urban II launched a campaign to help eastern Christians in the Byzantine Empire defend Jerusalem against Turkish invaders (Tyerman, 2019). As a reward, the crusaders were offered an opportunity to atone for their sins and increase their chances of getting into paradise. The desire of the pope to lead a godly cause coincided with the desire of his listeners to be saved. This event is marked as the beginning of the Crusades era.
During the two centuries, there were seven crusades overall, with the First Crusade being evaluated as the most successful. It counted not more than five thousand knights from France, Germany, and southern Italy (Shelley, 2013). Despite the few, they successfully overcame the resistance of the Turks, as well as accomplished the capturing of the Holy City of Jerusalem. It was a majorly successful campaign in terms of territorial conquests, as they captured territories at the Mediterranean and established a Latin kingdom in Jerusalem until it was eventually overthrown by the Muslims in 1291 (Shelley, 2013). A great number of the survivors returned home, whereas the ones who stayed formed four new three states in the Middle East in addition to the aforementioned Kingdom of Jerusalem. Those were the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Tripoli. The success of the First Crusade was to be followed by an irregular influx of the crusaders into the newly established lands, which led to the crusader states experiencing a constant shortage of defenders (Asbridge, 2012). This, along with the decrease of the original enthusiasm, caused a less successful further chain of the next number of the crusades.
Around half a century after the First Crusade, the crisis within the newly established crusader states began to intensify. The Second Crusade, which was called at the fall of the County of Edessa and the kingdom of Jerusalem facing destruction, did not achieve anything. Shelley (2013) points out that apart from the substantial decline of the initial eagerness of the crusaders, the signs of corruption of the holy cause started to become more and more vivid. The popes started to sell indulgences to attract new crusaders, promising total remission of their sins (Shelley, 2013). The Second Crusade ended in failure, as in 1187, Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, took the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The next five crusades experienced mixed success, with Jerusalem being re-conquered and lost to Muslims again. Eventually, the chain of unsuccessful campaigns led to the fact that the initial enthusiasm of the Europeans continued to weaken.
By the end of the age of the crusades the tension between the Western and the Eastern branches of Christianity began to intensify. The crusaders established the Latin Empire in Constantinople, the capital of Byzantine. Even though the Latin Empire lasted in Constantinople till 1261, the internal confrontation between the Greek and the Latin churches of Christianity remained unresolved and caused the weakening of the ancient city, as it finally fell to the Turks two centuries later (Asbridge, 2012). As stated by Shelley (2013), in the end, the Christians lost the Holy Land walked on by Jesus himself to the people who denied his divinity. Thus, the era of the crusades ended with the loss of the Acre, the major city of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, to the Muslims in 1291.
Debates on the legacy of the Crusades era
An epoch as fundamental for society and the course of history as the Crusades Era still causes heated debates to this day. By the 11th century, the world found itself in a situation where two major religions happened to advocate violence in the name of God in order to be established and consolidated. The debates about whether the crusades were an apogee of Christian aggression and early colonialism or a provoked measure based on noble motives are still there.
There is a rather common notion that the popes’ and crusaders’ primary goal was to rob the wealthy Middle East of the Middle Ages and conquer new lands. Tanner (2013) mentions an existing opinion that the crusades happened not out of idealism but in search of land, plunder, and power, as well as the will to convert the Muslim Middle East to Christianity. Heavy critique of the crusades originates in the age of the Enlightenment with the invention of the term “the Dark Ages,” which implies the violence and aggression of the crusaders and is aimed to vilify the church (Tanner, 2013). Arguably, this takes on the crusades and focuses solely on the materialist side of the events.
As far as the opposing stance on the subject is concerned, there is a notion that the crusades were aimed at defending Christian lands and people from the dangers imposed by the Muslim attacks. Initially, Pope Urban II urged the crusaders on a noble mission to rescue the Holy Land from the atrocities done by the Muslims, the people who denied the divinity of Christ and therefore paid no respect to the Holy Land (Tanner, 2013). A noble deed like this would wash away the sins of those who find the courage within themselves, which does not necessarily make it a selling of spiritual benefits. Therefore, this point of view highlights the nobility of the core idea of the crusades.
Conclusion
The impact of the age of the Crusades on the course of the world’s history is hard to overlook, as these events still cast a shadow on today’s world in terms of relations between two regions and the world’s two major religions. The debates about whether the crusades are a dark spot in the Catholic church’s history or an inevitable and crucial clash of cultures that gave a new push to the development of Christianity and Islam are still going on. No matter which of these points of view is more correct, it is obvious that it forever changed the nature of contact between these two religions, as well as international relations and stance on external religion.
References
Asbridge, T. (2012). The Crusades: The war for the Holy Land. Simon & Schuster UK.
Shelley, B. (2013). Church history in plain language: fourth edition. Zondervan Academic.
Tanner, N. (2014). A new short history of the Catholic Church. Bloomsbury.
Tyerman, C. (2019). The world of the Crusades. Yale University Press.