The Third Crusade
The third Crusade is sometimes referred to as the King's Crusade. Originally 3 kings were to lead the Crusade but only one of them made it to the Holy Land to carry out the Crusade. His name was Richard The Lionheart, An English king with French heritage. He was know as a great military leader and for his bravery in battle, which is where he got his nickname. Although Richard was able to recapture some of the lost cities he was never able to take the city of Jerusalem and signed a peace treaty with Saladin. Future Crusades Future Crusades occurred but with minimal impact and no new additions to Christian Territory. After the loss of the city of Acre the Christians lost all land for good. There never regained the city of Jerusalem after the start of the 2nd Crusade. Effects of the Crusades Besides the loss of thousands of lives and property damage there were some positive effects that came along with the Crusades. The Europeans returned home with lots of new goods and ideas like spices, textiles, castle building techniques, and medical knowledge. The main benefit for the Muslims was the new trade with Europe that emerged. |
The Crusades
The Causes of the Crusades The Seljuk Turks were moving close to the city of Constantinople and had already captured much of the empire. The Byzantine Emperor Alexius asked the Pope, Pope Urban II to send a force to help him fend off the Seljuk invasion. Urban saw this as an opportunity to stop Christians fighting each other in Europe and extend the power of Christian Europe into the Middle East. The First Crusade The First Crusade really came in two waves because they was one group made up mostly of peasants and the other was carried out by knights. Lead by Peter the Hermit many Europeans acted on the idea stated by the Pope that anyone who took on a crusade would be admitted to Heaven. Peter lead a large untrained and unprepared group which on its way ran out of supplies, stole, and killed Jews. This group was not who the Emperor Alexius had in mind when he asked for help and when they arrived they weren't allowed into the gates of Constantinople. This group was later joined by more skilled knights lead by nobles. At first this group agreed to serve Alexius and that any land that they conquered would be his, however this did not last. Not long after arriving the Crusaders were on the verge of taking their first city and Alexius went behind their back and took it first. This severed their deal and many Crusader started looking to take cities for themselves. During the 1st Crusade the Europeans took many cities in the Holy Land including the city of Jerusalem the one they had most wanted to take. In all they captured land that was narrow and stretched for about 650 miles. One of the reasons the Crusaders were successful during the 1st Crusade is that the Muslims were not a unified group able to unite and fight back. The Second Crusade At the end of the first Crusade the Europeans had established 4 Crusader kingdoms, each of them was being ruled by a different noble and not many of them were well protected. The Muslims were able to capture the Kingdom of Edessa and a force was sent to recapture it but they were unsuccessful. Not long after a sultan by the name of Saladin was able to unite the Muslims under the banner of jihad and retook the city of Jerusalem. This triggered a response from the Christian Europeans that became the 3rd Crusade. |
http://resourcesforhistoryteachers.wikispaces.com/WHI.9
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http://www.phschool.com/atschool/worldhistory/interactive_maps/WH07A00563.swf