In the eleventh century, the expansion of the Islamic world established the dominance of the Palestine region. Initially, the territorial control exercised by the Arabs still allowed the sacred city of Jerusalem was visited by several Christians who pilgrimage towards the place where Christ lived his Calvary. However, at the end of that century, the domination carried out by the Turks prevented the location from continuing to be visited by Christians.
At the same time, the order of the feudal world underwent serious changes. The end of the barbarian invasions and the experimentation of a more stable period allowed the agricultural production to increase and, subsequently, the European population to also suffer an increase. Interested in not sharing their power, many feudal lords preferred to pass on their inheritance only to the eldest son, forcing other descendants to live in other ways.
Those who did not enter religious life, looked to military service or an advantageous marriage as a way to seek some guarantee. However, those who had no way of resorting to such alternatives ended up living off petty crimes, assaults and collecting tolls on those who circulated Medieval Europe. Furthermore, on some properties, many peasants could not bear the menial obligations and began to live as beggars and robbers.
It was in this context that Pope Urban II, in a meeting of the Council of Clermont, called on European Christianity to fight against the infidels who impeded access to the Holy Land. Anyone who took part in the fight against Muslims would automatically have their sins forgiven. In this way, the Crusades or crusade movement were started.
More than granting salvation to those who took up arms, the Crusades also represented an interesting alternative to the social tensions that were taking shape in Medieval Europe. The scarcity of land for the nobility could finally be resolved by dominating the territories to the east. In fact, when conquering domains in Syria, the Byzantine Empire and Palestine, several nobles formed properties that gave rise to several feudal states, known as Frankish kingdoms or Latinos.
The conquest was soon counterattacked by the Muslims, who relied on the military leadership of Sultan Saladin in the Third Crusade. At the end of this new struggle, the lands conquered by the Christians were reduced to some regions of the Palestinian coast and Syria. In this way, we cannot say that the crusade movement represented a definitive solution to the lack of land that gripped Christian Europe.
On the other hand, the dominance of certain regions of the Middle East ended up allowing the enrichment of some commercial cities that survived the ruralization process of the feudal era. Places such as Genoa and Venice took advantage of new trade opportunities, going so far as to incite their merchants to finance the military action of the Crusades by making material resources, vessels and money available for the Fourth Crusade (1202 - 1204).
Thus, even though it is not a lasting solution to European problems, the Crusades were important for the creation of a commercial flow that allowed the introduction of several oriental goods in the daily life of the Europe. Furthermore, contact with the knowledge of the Byzantine and Arab world was extremely important for the intellectual progress necessary for the development of the subsequent great navigations.
By Rainer Sousa
Graduated in History
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Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SOUSA, Rainer Gonçalves. "The Crusades and the Development of Trade"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/guerra-santa-liberou-o-comercio.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
