Crusades were carried out by the inhabitants of Western Europe in the 11-15th centuries of our era, and their goal was the conversion of pagan peoples to Christianity or the release of Christian shrines from the yoke of the infidels.
The beginning of the crusader movement
In March 1095, Clermont Cathedral was held, after which Pope Urban urged Europeans to go East. The reasons for this movement, he considered the lack of food for the inhabitants of Europe, as well as the need to take Christian shrines from the Gentiles. Therefore, he began to form the Order of the Crusaders, which was supposed to go on a campaign against the Gentiles, and urged ordinary people to join.
The campaigns of 1095-1290 were aimed at capturing Jerusalem, in which the Holy Sepulcher was located. The then Christians also fought with the Turks, with pagans in the Baltic States and with the Eastern Slavs, who professed a different kind of Christianity. Pope Urban II became an ardent ideologist of the campaign against the Turks, and to all those who agreed to fight on his side, he promised the complete cancellation of their debts to the state and the retirement of their families who remained in European countries. A lot of people gathered under his banners, and therefore the invasion of the Crusaders to the East took place.
The consequences of the first campaign
Since the idea of Pope Urban was shared not only by knights and noble people, but also by ordinary people, a large army went to the East. As a result, Jerusalem was conquered, 1099 was the year of the founding of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
The enthusiasm of the crusade participants was also fueled by stories that the Turks who had conquered Jerusalem mistreated Christian pilgrims and oppressed them greatly.
The first king of Jerusalem was Baldwin, brother of the leader of the Crusade, Gottfried of Bouillon. He annexed the cities of Beirut and Sidon to his territories. Baldwin was largely responsible for the order established by the crusaders in the conquered countries. So, Italians settled here in large numbers, who were given permission to trade and open ports. The order was watched by the knights who in this kingdom opened their orders.
Other crusader states
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was not the only state that the crusaders created. During this period, the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, and the Tripoli County were founded. Here was the Order of the Crusaders of the John
The Principality of Antioch occupied the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and its population was about thirty thousand people. Crusaders who came from Italy and Normandy also lived there.
The county of Edessa appeared in 1098, and appeared on the lands on which the Armenians originally lived. This county occupied a large territory, but it did not have access to water. There were approximately 10,000 inhabitants. The county had vassal territories. The state of the Crusaders, whose map was with the Muslim rulers, did not exist for long.
The first quarter of the twelfth century was marked by the fact that the possessions of the crusaders increased. In 1100, the soldiers of Christ captured the cities of Tripoli and Caesarea, two years later Acre was captured. After this, Tripoli County was created. At its head was Bertrand, Count of Toulouse. What order the crusaders established in the conquered countries can be judged by how many cities were burned and how many local residents were killed.
The decline of the kingdom of Jerusalem
The heyday of this territory came during the reign of Baldwin of Eden. He was considered a person who piously observes Christian ideals, he had a wife - Queen Melisenda - and a son. His son Baldwin the Third began to rule the kingdom after the death of his father. At this time, the crusader states in the East united and became the mainstay of the Christian religion. The heir to the Third Baldwin was the Fourth Baldwin.
Since 1185, the decline of the kingdom began. Several rulers changed. In 1189, Emperor Salahaddin with his Muslim army appeared on the horizon near this kingdom. They besiege Jerusalem, which hides many fugitive Christians. After the capture of the city, its inhabitants survived, but they had to pay a ransom. Those who did not pay the ransom became slaves. Local residents remembered the order established by the crusaders in the conquered countries, and therefore more willingly went under the rule of the Muslim Sultan.
In 1229, King Frederick II temporarily returned the city to Christian possession. But soon the Muslims seized him again, and in 1285 the last knights fled to Cyprus, leaving Jerusalem to Muslim regiments. A large role in the capture of Jerusalem was played by the Mameluk Sultan Beibars. The battle of the crusaders with the Muslims lasted three days.
Children crusade
One of the tragic pages of the Crusades is the Crusade of Children, which began in 1212. In one of the French villages, a shepherd Stefan appeared, who announced that it was allegedly possible only with the help of children to free the Holy Sepulcher, and urged the children to go to Jerusalem. As a result, he managed to gather up to thirty thousand followers.
Their further fate was deplorable: some died from various disasters, some were sold into slavery. Many died on the road. Subsequently, the Pope freed them from the Crusader vow, postponing its implementation until they came of age.
How Crusades Affected the Middle East
The influence of the Crusades on the history and economy of different countries is ambiguous. On the one hand, thanks to this, there was an upsurge in the Italian cities in which trade developed. On the other hand, the economy and culture of Syria and Palestine were in decline. Much depended on what order the crusaders established in the conquered countries.
Syria and Palestine suffered because many cities were destroyed and burned due to the crusader raids. Cities such as Edessa, Ascalon and Caesarea, finally gone into oblivion. In 1227, Tinnis, the third largest city of Egypt at that time, was finally destroyed. At the end of the thirteenth century, the coastal part of Palestine was a ruined area on which no one dared to settle.
Many of the handicraft centers of Syria and Palestine were permanently destroyed, and were no longer restored, and people from there moved to Egypt.