What orders did the Crusaders establish in the conquered countries? Crusades and their consequences

The Crusades were conducted by the inhabitants of Western Europe in the 11th and 15th centuries of our era, and their aim was to convert pagan peoples to Christianity or the liberation of Christian shrines from under the yoke of infidels.

The beginning of the Crusader movement

In March 1095 the Clermont cathedral passed, after which Pope Urban urged the Europeans to go to the East. The reasons for this movement, he believed the lack of food for Europeans, as well as the need to take Christian shrines from the Gentiles. Therefore, he began to form the Order of the Crusaders, which was to go with a campaign against the Gentiles, and called on 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 against the Turks, with the pagans in the Baltic and with the Eastern Slavs who professed a different kind of Christianity. Pope Urban II was an ardent ideologist of the march to the Turks, and to all who agreed to fight on his side, he promised a complete abolition of their debts to the state and a pension to their families that remained in European countries. A lot of people gathered under his banner, and therefore the invasion of the Crusaders to the East took place.

Consequences of the first campaign

Since the idea of Pope Urban was shared not only by knights and noble people, but also by the common people, then 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 participants in the crusade was also fueled by stories that the Turks who conquered Jerusalem, mistreated Christian pilgrims badly and oppressed them.

The first king of Jerusalem was Baldwin, brother of the leader of the Crusade, Gottfried Bouillon. He annexed Beirut and Sidon to his territories. Baldwin in many respects was responsible for what order the Crusaders established in the conquered countries. So, here in a lot settled Italians, who were given permission to trade and open ports. The knights, who in this kingdom opened their orders, looked after the order.

Other Crusader states

The Kingdom of Jerusalem was not the only state that the Crusaders created. During this period the Edessa county, the Antioch princedom, the Tripolye county were founded. Here was the order of the crusaders of the Johannites.

The Antioch princedom occupied the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and its population was somewhere around thirty thousand people. Still there lived the Crusaders, who came from Italy and Normandy.

Edessa county 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. The inhabitants there were about 10,000 people. The county had vassal territories. The states of the Crusaders, whose map was held by the Muslim rulers, did not exist for long.

The first quarter of the twelfth century was marked by the fact that the possession of the Crusaders increased. In 1100, the warriors of Christ captured the cities of Tripoli and Caesarea, two years later, Acre was captured. After that Tripolye county was created. In his chapter was Bertrand, Earl of Toulouse. What order the Crusaders established in the conquered countries can be judged by how many cities were burned and how many local people were killed.

The Decline of the Kingdom of Jerusalem

The heyday of this territory came during the reign of Baldwin of Edessa. He was considered a person who faithfully observed 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. Baldwin's fourth successor was Baldwin the Fourth.

Since 1185, the decline of the kingdom began. Several rulers have changed. In 1189, on the horizon near this kingdom appears Emperor Salahaddin with his Muslim army. They take Jerusalem into siege, in which many Christian fugitives are hiding. After the capture of the city, its inhabitants survived, but they had to pay ransom. Those who did not pay ransom became slaves. Local residents remembered what order the crusaders established in the conquered countries, and therefore they willingly went under the authority of the Muslim Sultan.

In 1229, King Frederick the Second temporarily returns the city to the possession of Christians. But soon the Muslims again seize it, and in 1285 the last knights flee to Cyprus, leaving Jerusalem to the Muslim regiments. A great role in the capture of Jerusalem was played by Mamluk Sultan Baybars. The battle of the Crusaders with the Muslims lasted three days.

The Crusade of Children

One of the tragic pages of the Crusades is the Crusade of the Children, which began in 1212. In one of the French villages, the shepherd Stefan appeared, who announced that supposedly only with the help of children the Holy Sepulcher could be released, and he urged the children to go to Jerusalem. In the end, he managed to gather up to thirty thousand followers.

The further fate of them was formed deplorably: some died from various disasters, some were sold into slavery. Many died on the road. Subsequently, the Pope released them from the crusading vow, postponing his execution until their majority.

The influence of the Crusades on 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 of Italian cities in which trade developed. On the other hand, the economy and culture of Syria and Palestine were in decline. Much depended on the order the Crusaders had established in the conquered countries.

Syria and Palestine suffered, because of the crusading raids of many cities were destroyed and burned. Such cities as Edessa, Askalon and Kaisaria, finally went 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 terrain, on which no one dared to settle.

Many craft centers of Syria and Palestine were permanently destroyed, and no longer restored, and people from there moved to Egypt.