Effects Of The First Crusades

The First Crusade was the first and most successful of a series of holy wars that defined the Middle Ages. Ostensibly a religious mission to regain the Holy Land, the crusade changed the ways the nobility interacted and opened western Europe to new ideas. While the goal of the First Crusade was to “rescue” Jerusalem, its most lasting effect was the strengthening of the Catholic Church. At the behest of the Pope, Urban II, a large group of French nobles went to try to recapture Jerusalem. The First Crusade was a war that was fought by French nobles at the behest of Pope Urban II, in which they successfully conquered Jerusalem, but it most lasting effect was the strengthening of the Catholic Church

The First Crusade arose from Pope Urban II’s aspiration to harness worldly power for the Church. In the mid-1090s, Emperor Alexios I of Byzantium sent a letter to the Pope requesting military aid, hoping to get a few thousand mercenaries to help fend off the Turks who had been encroaching ever closer to his capital. This …show more content…
After conquering Jerusalem, the crusaders made the city into a kingdom with Godfrey as the king. this, along with the knights templar, made completing a pilgrimage to the holy land a much safer endeavor. Also, this gave Christendom a base of operations from which they could fight the Muslims. Unfortunately, this conquest like most was not complete which led to Christendom spending the next few hundred years fighting to retain the city. The greatest effect of the first crusade was how much it strengthened the catholic church specifically the office of the pope. It caused the formation of catholic religious orders, such as the Knights Templar or the Knights Hospitaller, which were powerful military organizations that were ultimately loyal to the