With the taking of the city of Rome in 476 d. C., and the consequent fall of the Roman Empire From the West, Europe gradually lost its contact with the trade routes with the East, isolating itself in the rural world, as a result of the various barbarian invasions that took place. Another loss was the possibility of a pilgrimage to the Holly Land, in the region of Jerusalem, Palestine, which came under the control of the Seldjuk Turks. With your conversion to Islam, at the end of the eleventh century, they began to prevent Christians from going to Jerusalem. To end this situation, European Christians decided to organize the Crusades to gain land, conquer trade routes and be able to pilgrimage again to the Holy Land.
But it was not just the religious factor that encouraged the Europeans to carry out the Crusades. There was an interest in expanding the power of Catholic church, after the occurrence of the schism of the east, in 1054, dividing the Roman Church in two. The Byzantine Church, created from the Schism, was threatened by the various Islamic peoples who inhabited the around the Byzantine Empire and sought support from Western Christians to curb the expansion of the Turks Seljuks.
Read too:Establishment and development of the Church in the Middle Ages
On the other hand, the stability of the feudal world achieved after the end of the barbarian invasions it provided a population growth after the eleventh century, which made it necessary to conquer new lands to increase food production. In addition, more people represented larger families, which caused a problem in the land distribution from lords to their children. Faced with this, only the firstborn (the oldest) would inherit the land, forcing the other children of the masters to seek ways of survival, venturing on the roads, looting caravans, kidnapping people or looking for advantages weddings.
You still started to intensify tax collection, which led several serfs to leave the lands and beg on the roads and cities, or even to become bandits.
To try to resolve this whole situation the pope Urban II, in 1905, during the Council of Clermont, inaugurated the Crusades movement, speaking that the main objective was “to uproot that land [holy] from the evil race [Muslims] so that it may be in your power”. In this way, he called on European Christians to fight for the conquest of the Holy Land. But there was still the interest of Italian cities in commerce in the Mediterranean Sea, which was closed after the end of the Roman Empire. Faced with all these situations, the Crusades emerged, and eight expeditions were officially organized. Below is the presentation of some of them.
First Crusade (1096-1099) – The Crusade of the Nobles, formed by several cavalry armies of noble origin but without a king, achieved the conquest of several locations, including Jerusalem;
Third Crusade (1189-1192) – Cruzada dos Reis, named for the participation of the King of France, Felipe Augusto; the King of England, Richard the Heart of Lion and the King of the Holy Roman Empire. It was organized after the loss of the city of Jerusalem, but it did not achieve its goals, just a few diplomatic agreements, such as peace with Sultan Saladin, regaining the freedom of pilgrimage to Earth Santa.
Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) – The Commercial Crusade. It was led by Venetian merchants, who were on the rise with commercial development in the Mediterranean. They deviated from Jerusalem and moved to Constantinople, sacking this city.
Peter the Hermit speaking to beggars
There were also two other Crusades that reaffirmed the mystical character of the expeditions. One of them was the Beggars Crusade (1096), which was attended by an army of beggars, poor peasants and also thieves, led by Peter the Hermit. They sacked Constantinople but were defeated after crossing the Bosphorus Strait. the other was the Children's Crusade (1212), so called because it is composed of children, who due to their “purity” and “innocence” could liberate Jerusalem. Children were decimated, some being sold into slavery.
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
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