what were the affects of the crusades ?

Answer 1

death and seperation...

Answer 2

Overall nothing. The First Crusade conquered the city of Jerusalem in 1100. The knights established the kingdom of Jerusalem with a feudal code called the Assizes of Jerusalem. Another state set up was the Principality of Antioch.

The second crusade was of king Louis VII of France and his queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. The purpose was to lead forces to reinforce the occupation of the Holy Land. They did that. Otherwise nothing.

The Third Crusade was that of Richard I of England (the lion heart), Philip II Augustus of France, and Frederick Barbarossa of Germany. By that time, Jerusalem had already been retaken.

The Fourth Crusade succeeded in capturing Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. That established a feudal state in Greece.

At the end, there was a procession of pretending emperors and empresses, traveling about Europe, offering to sell their titles. The end was the conquest of all the middle east and eastern europe by the Turks in the 1400's.

Answer 3

An excellent question given the fact that we are still stumbling around in the Middle East wondering why we can't achieve our objectives (presumably a democratic, western friendly, peaceable group of prosperous countries that treat their own people and their neighbours decently).

The Crusades were important in this (todays) context for two reasons. Firstly because it created lasting impressions in European (liberation) and Arab (oppression) minds (whether based on fact or otherwise), and secondly because it was a real event that changed the 'shape' of the world.

One way of looking at it (and I'll make the most controversial suggestion first) is that a series of Western European military adventures destroyed the delicate balance of force between Byzantium (the Roman Empire) and the Arab and Persian armies, resulting in the radicalization of the Arab forces, the destruction of Byzantium (by the Venetians and Normans) as a bulwark against Arab expansion in Eastern Europe and the subsequent creation of the Ottoman Empire which was implaccibly hostile to the West. In the process Northern Italy became incredibly rich (fuelling the Renaissance). There was also a very large transfer of knowledge (medicine, warfare, science) from the Arab world to Western Europe via returning Crusaders.

Another way of looking at it is to consider the 'detail', particularly the operation of the northern Christian Principalities (Aleppo and Antioch) set up in the 1100's, and how they survived in a hostile environment by making alliances with (some of) their Arab neighbours and using non-military means (everything from trade to assasination) to achieve their aims.

Another detail might be to consider how crusading late-comers with 'pure' concepts of race and religion were shocked by the easy-going relations between long settled Crusaders in Jerusalem and the Arabs, and how the new-comers precipitated the very poorly planned battle of Hattin that resulted in the utter destruction of western forces and the loss of Jerusalem.

A final detail (picked from a host of them) might be how the Venetians (and Pisa and Genoa amongst others) made a fortune by transporting crusaders and their supplies, how they set up monopolies in the conquered countries for the provision of services (including armed forces), and how they would do anything (including destroy allied forces) if there was a profit in it.

I'd strongly recommend reading Runciman if you really want to understand what 'went on', but otherwise here are some links:

Answer 4

One lasting affect of the crusades was on the northern Italian trading towns. Such as Venice, Milan, Florence. These towns grew very wealthy from suppling the crusaders. This wealth was then arguably used to help fund the beginnings of the Renaissance which has provided countless works of art.

Answer 5

Drove the arabs out of Spain and southern Italy, thus protecting Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire. Once the four crusades were over, Europe came out of the Middle Ages into the Renaissances.

Answer 6

One of the Effects (notice the spelling) of the crusades was that Europe was required to supply a large force far away for long periods of time; this meant a great deal of logistics that eventually paved the way for long-distance trade to be resurrected.

Another effect was to put back muslim-Christian relations a thousand years...things like arabic numerals, for example, were rejected as being un-Christian around this time.