Question

What were the economic factors that led to the Crusades?

Answer 1

One of the most important effects of the crusades was on commerce. They created a constant demand for the transportation of men and supplies, encouraged ship-building, and extended the market for eastern wares in Europe. The products of Damascus, Mosul, Alexandria, Cairo, and other great cities were carried across the Mediterranean to the Italian seaports, whence they found their way into all European lands. The elegance of the Orient, with its silks, tapestries, precious stones, perfumes, spices, pearls, and ivory, was so enchanting that an enthusiastic crusader called it "the vestibule of Paradise."

Political Effects of the Crusades

As to the political effects of the Crusades, they helped to break down the power of the feudal aristocracy, and to give prominence to the kings and the people.

Many of the nobles who set out on the expeditions never returned, and their estates, through failure of heirs, escheated to the Crown; while many more wasted their fortunes in meeting the expenses of their undertaking. At the same time, the cities also gained many political advantages at the expense of the crusading barons and princes. Ready money in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was largely in the hands of the burgher class, and in return for the contributions and loans they made to their overlords, or suzerains, they received charters conferring special and valuable privileges.

And the other political effects of the Crusades was that in checking the advance of the Turks the fall of Constantinople was postponed for three centuries or more. This gave the early Christian civilization of Germany time to acquire sufficient strength to roll back the returning tide of Mohammedan invasion when it broke upon Europe in the fifteenth century.

Answer 2

Medieval Europe is often considered a violent place, and not without reason. The entire structure of Medieval society is based on the premise of finding a way to create armies.

The medieval villiage was expected to provide the king with a single mounted knight, with all his armour and equipment, plus a suitable retinue of retainers. All the knights from all the villiages would form the core of any King's army.

The problem, of course, is that under the Medieval system only the eldest son would inherit all this land. The land was not allowed to be divided up because if it was, each separate piece would not provide enough support for any knights at all. Warhorses and medieval armour were extremely expensive. So all the land had to be kept together to make sure the knights could afford them.

This meant that there were a lot of second sons, who came from families where fighting is highly valued but who had no way of supporting themselves. Their only hope to gain a fief of land from the king so they could be proper knights in turn was to serve in the king's armies.

With all these people looking to prove their worth in battle, European kings had to fight wars periodically just to get by. And winning a war had enough potential gains that it was worth trying to conquer some territory off your neighbours.

Pope Urban II (like many before him) was troubled by all this violence, feeling that Christians should live in peace with one another. So he gave Christian Europe a new enemy: Islam. It was believed that this would unite Christians against a common enemy, and would also serve the "good" purpose of freeing all the Christians living under Muslim rule and recovering some of the territory that was lost to the Muslims 500 years before.

It's hard to say if this actually worked or not. Wars in Europe continued to happen, but it is certainly possible that more wars would have happened in Europe if the crusades had not occurred. It is likely that the Crusades did lessen some of the tension caused by having so many fighting men in need of an income.