Effects of the Crusades

Effects of the Crusades

1. Senseless Violence & Wars: The Crusader mentality was that Christianity must displace Islam/Judaism at all costs, even if through violence. Persecutions of Jews escalated throughout Europe. On the Crusaders' march around the Mediterranean, the death toll was high for Christians and Muslims. When Jerusalem was captured, Muslim and Jewish residents in the city were slaughtered, including women. All of this for a short-lived Christian kingdom in the Middle East which proved to be unsustainable.

2. Undermining Church Moral Authority: Such escapades as the slaughter of Jews and Muslims were later used as an indictment against the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) during the Protestant Reformation beginning in the 16th century, convincing many that the RCC was not the moral authority it had claimed to be throughout the Dark Ages.

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3. Distrust of Christians: As Christians violently persecuted Jews and destroyed Muslims in their path to the Middle East, they would develop a reputation as a ruthless and exploitive group among these people.

4. Opened Way for Future Muslim Conquests of Europe: As animosity grew between Roman Catholics and Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox), the Crusaders were compelled (with papal authority) to conquer the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. Byzantine would later recover its captial, but would be irreversibly damaged, ripening it for destruction when the Ottoman Turks began advancing into Europe. Once the Byzantine was conquered by the Ottoman armies, much of the remainder of Eastern Europe fell like a house of cards to the Ottoman Empire.

5. Asian Influence: The crusades did increase Europe’s knowledge of the Asian world, which was more advanced than Europe in most aspects. This helped to bring a more cosmopolitan influence to Europe, which may have played a small part in the eventual Renaissance.

6. Increased Anti-Semitism: Devotion and loyalty to the Church was on the rise as membership spread throughout all of Europe. As a result, religious tolerance was at a low, leaving the significant Jewish populations in Europe as an obvious target. Throughout Europe, entire Jewish communities were destroyed (with inhabitants killed) in some cases, along with common occurrences of violence (even slaughter) against the Jews.

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