What factors helped precipitate the Crusades in the Middle Ages?

Question

Did any one group manage to make a profit off of them? And why were children encouraged to get involved? What happened afterwards?

To those who are wondering, I am reading a book about it right now. Just curious about what others know.

Answer 1

1. There was a genuine religious impulse to "save" the Holy Land. This was the basis of the Childrens' crusade - religious fervour and, probably, lack of prospects at home. People were a lot more worried about their salvation that they are now.

2. The landed gentry had a surplus of armed men and a shortage of wars for them to make money off. A great deal of war was waged so that the participants could make money from plunder and ransoms of defeated soldiers. Attempts were made on a regular basis to syphon them off into Crusades, especially after the 100 years war when a lot of them crossed the Alps in order to plunder Italy.

After all, land was inherited and, unless you wanted to split it into unviable portions, you had to get rid of unwanted sons somehow - the church and war were about the only two options.

The Holy Land changed hands a number of times before Christendom gave up on it as the Turks threatened the gates of Europe itself.

Answer 2

It would probably help if you look in a library and read a book.
Trust me, that's the only way you will find the answers.
Heres a brief summary how it started:
It began in 1095 with pope urban ll. In France, he whipped up the people in a religious frenzy to take back the holy land as well as the holy relics the Arabs were accused of taking.
Knights, barons and christian clergy with about 100,000 people made an invasion of the holy land and areas around it. They won back Jerusalem from the Arabs and held it for awhile. By the way,
no kings were involved in the first crusade.
Many soldiers, civilians died, mostly on the way there. The Arabs took it back around 100 yrs. later. There was a children crusade, which went terribly wrong. The kids were either killed or taken into slave labor. Never finished the trip. There is a book written on this.
Profit? Plunders of war and land grab possibly. Twelve or thirteen crusades later, the only real gain would be for the knowledge they shared from each other I would say. That being architecture for one. Arabs got Constantinople, a major port. One could say that we are still fighting the remnants of those crusades to this day.
Eventually, the crusades took a backseat to warring countries in the west and internal matters. No one was interested in going back.

Answer 3

Charlemange was a new convert to christianity and so was most of the european nobility at the time... zealous in their faith, they felt that jerusalem falling into saracen hands was too much of an affront to their religion. That was a big factor but there was another equally big reason..the profit to be had from trade with the east which had always been handled by the arabs, esp spices.
Many groups profited off the crusades besides royalty there were the legendary orders of knights.
Children were especially enouraged- to the nobility it was for family honour while for the less fortunate sections of society it was a chance at fortune and adventure and also for the 'noble' cause of Christianity.
After more than a dozen crusades, the enthusaism wore off with the wars getting too expensive and the trade incentive lost as new trade routes were opened via the sea.

Answer 4

Historically, there has been two views of mankind. One is that man is in the image of the Creator, that man is above the animals, that human life is sacred. The other, is that there are oligarchies in the world, who are "better", who have the "right to rule" and believe in empires. They regard most people as similar to cattle or sheep.
There was an attempt by Charlemagne to civilize nations, and create the basis for the development of the population. This was a threat to the Venetian oligarchies, and the Norman Invasion was part of an attempt, as were the Crusades, to destroy that impulse for sovereign nations.
Most of the families in France and Prussia, profited from the wars.
I don't know about your question on the role of children.

Answer 5

Factors:
1. Western Europe full of bored mercenaries
2. Vatican well connected throughout these new (post Roman) monarchies
3. Islam given bad press

Profit was a strengthened Christian enclave in the "Middle East" and control of trade routes. Children would have been in church (the nearest thing they had to school or TV) when this propaganda was distributed about Europe, so they will have grown up with this prejudice. Sorry but my history's terrible, so I don't know what happened next.

Good question!

Answer 6

The Arabs had cut off the overland spice trade routes to China and India, and the Pope needed to stir people up to get their minds off their misery.

Answer 7

the catholic church -- more specifically the pope -- wanting to exert their power over the people and more importantly their power over the monarchies in europe.