From the 11th century onwards, the medieval world underwent a series of transformations that directly affected the feudal order. The demographic growth experienced at that time established a conflicting relationship with the low productivity that marked agricultural production at that time. Even with the development of better planting techniques - especially since the invention of iron plow and the improvement of hydraulic mills - the demand for food was greater than the production.
In this way, many of the feudal lords began to institute an increase in the servile obligations imposed on the peasant population. The formation of this population surplus would still be responsible for a process of marginalization where many were expelled from the fiefs and, therefore, they started to support themselves through begging or the realization of small crimes. In fact, we can see that the medieval world was undergoing a visible transformation.
Within the noble class, there was an important change with regard to land tenure rights. In order not to have their power diluted, the feudal lords began to leave their properties as an inheritance only to their eldest sons. With this, the institution of the so-called birthright forced the younger children of feudal lords to seek other livelihoods offering military services in exchange for land or other sources of income, such as charging for Toll.
Amidst these changes, we can see that both nobles and peasants became victims of a process of marginalization that threatened the stability of the feudal order. To solve this problem, the Church mobilized this population to form religious armies charged with the task of expelling Muslims from the Holy Land. Such action was made official at the Council of Clermont, in 1095, where Pope Urban II defended the process of expelling Muslim Arabs.
After all, what would be the Church's motivations for showing itself in favor of the removal of Muslims from that location? For a long time, since the Islamic expansion, the Arabs had been ruling the lands of the holy city of Jerusalem. However, by the end of the eleventh century, the region had been taken over by the Seldjuk Turks, who – even though they were equally converts to Islam – did not have the same flexible stance as the Arabs by not allowing Christians to enter Jerusalem.
At the same time, the Church also suffered a process of retraction of its religious hegemony when the Schism of the East (1054) divided the authority of the Christian world between the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople, founder of the so-called Orthodox Church Greek. Furthermore, several Byzantine monarchs were inclined to re-establish the unity of the Church under the rule of Rome, should the pope help them with the process of expelling the Seldjuk Turks from their Domains.
Thus, we realize that the Cruzado movement happened as a result of a series of factors that contributed to the formalization of this historical fact. Population growth in Europe, the process of marginalization in feuds, the division of religious power of the Roman Church and the territorial expansion of the Turks would be the main explanatory factors for this event.
Shortly thereafter, considering the various crusades that were organized, we must also include the interest of Italian merchants. This new group, which established itself in cities such as Genoa and Venice, financed some crusades with the aim of conquering the attractive trade routes that linked East and West. Thus, the Crusades can be understood as a historical process marked by religious, political and economic issues.
By Rainer Sousa
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/cruzada-fatores.htm
