WHI-Chap20-Obj6
The Crusades were caused by Roman Catholic Christians' desire to take possession of the holy land. Pope Urban II is credited with launching the crusades in 1095. During the Council of Clermont Pope Urban II called for Christian knights to arm themselves and seize the holy lands. A zealous preacher named Peter the Hermit traveled throughout France, Germany, and the Low Countries (now Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands). Within a year Of Pope Urban's call for action, Peter had organized an army of poor knights and enthusiastic peasants (including women). Because of this army's inexperience they did not get far; few made it past Anatolia or back to Europe without being killed or captured. Although Peter the Hermit's campaign was a complete disaster, it indicated the high level of interest for crusades in Europe. In late 1096 French and Norman nobles organized a respectable army and launched The First Crusade (Traditions and Encounters, p. 532-33).
Although the crusades were wars of military and political expansion, they ended up being much more important for their social, economic, commercial, and cultural consequences. Even though European armies were building crusader states in Palestine and Syria, European scholars and missionaries dealt with Muslim philosophers and theologians. European merchants traded eagerly with their Muslim counterparts. The result of these interactions was a large-scale exchange of ideas, technologies, and trade goods that greatly influenced European development. Because of these interactions Europeans also became acquainted with the works of Aristotle, Islamic science and astronomy, Arabic numerals, and techniques of paper production. Muslim trade centers also benefited from interactions with the Europeans caused by the crusades; Europeans became eager to obtain luxuries from the Muslim World previously only available to the wealthy elites (Traditions and Encounters, p. 534).
by Avram Bukhbinder
