The Crusades During The Dark Ages

The Crusades sparked a time of change throughout Europe, and brought light to the Dark Ages. During this time period, violence replaced rational thought which, along with the feudal system, sent Europe into a period of pure chaos. Through feudalistic manors, trade in Europe came to an abrupt stop and almost all people had their life dictated by the person above them in the feudal system. Living in a constant state of fear, many people left their manors to fight for Christianity and the taking back of the Holy Land. Although religious intolerance radically increased as a result of the crusades, overall the decline of feudalism along with the radical increase in the trade that Europe saw after the Crusades allowed Europe to highly benefit from …show more content…
The Crusades opened up an immense amount of trade routes and created the means for an international system of commerce. Much of this was possible because of the driving forces that pushed people to expand their horizons and broaden their estates. At the time, organizers believed that the only reason why people were willing to fight in the Crusades was because of their commitment to their religion however, this proved to be wrong. Many people saw the Crusades as an opportunity to explore the world outside their manors and for the first time since before the Dark Ages, people began to trade with different empires instead of just with others within a manor. As described in More Effects on the Crusades, “when crusaders returned to Europe, they brought back things such as spices, sugar, and silk” (document 8), and these goods people’s fascination with goods from other empires and drove them to look for more. For many people, these goods provided people with new solutions to problems such as spoiling food along with providing the wealthy with newfound luxuries. They became a necessity to people living during this time period, which drove them to buy more of these goods. Through the trade routes that opened as a result of the Crusades, trade became much easier. The Description of the Economic …show more content…
Previously, this system had ruled Europe and people had no choice but to follow, but through events that followed the Crusades, people began to have many more options. The seeking of “adventure, for estates, or for commercial properties” (document 3), as described in The Description behind the Crusaders desire to fight in these Battles, was not dulled after the Crusades ended. People felt a need to trade, and as a result new jobs that had not needed to exist in feudal society arose. Through this, the development of cities grow, and more people seeing the success that towns were creating, left their manors to pursue success in these towns. More people also had the opportunity to leave their manors through the Crusades. After the majority of Landowners left to join the Crusades, enforcement of feudal society was difficult to uphold. Along with this, the trust in the Church that so many people had relied on during the Dark Ages, had suddenly faded away. After Black Plague killed almost half of Europe’s population, people began to realize that the Church did not hold all of the answers to people’s problems. The exposure to Islamic medicine showed people that science and medicine could provide people with a much better life. After the Crusades, people were shown much more of what