Could you believe that 10s of thousands of people were deceived by Pope in the middle ages to go fight for a lie? The Crusades were a set of “Holy” wars, as historians and even people from that time acclaimed, but there was an underlying reason for these wars, one that stretches more into a political and economic sense. These wars happened during the Middle Ages, also known as the dark ages due to the terrible state that towns and people themselves were in. Most people were very poor in that time as well. When the possibility of a Crusade was introduced, many people not from Europe were encouraged to head out so they could earn loot from the cities that were constructed in Jerusalem, and those from Europe wanted religious rewards. During the …show more content…
Wealth drives almost everything in today’s world, and that greedy nature stretched back to that area of time as well. The things that made people wealthy during that time were mostly land and of course, coins. This is seen primarily in a document by Fulk of Chatre’s Chronicles of the Crusades, where he says, “Those who had few coins, here possess countless besants, and those who had not a villa, here… already possess a city.” These words reveal how successful people became when they survived the bloody battles of the crusades and the wealth they managed to earn. Another part of the document says, “Some already possess here homes and servants which they have received through inheritance.” Even if the person fell during the battle, their family earns lots of money and riches for themselves. So all in all, people gained lots of wealth and fortune from the …show more content…
However, there is more support for the fact that these wars were driven by desire for political and economic gain in the long run. The religious parts were just to trick those who believed so strongly in their faith to fight so the large surviving army could bring back wealth and to impact the Silk Road trade in their favor. A document from a Christian Monk who had participated in the Crusade talks about people’s motivations to join the Crusades, stating, “for they bore the sign of the cross on their garments as a reminder that they should mortify the flesh and in the hope that they would in this way triumph over the enemies of the cross of Christ…” This line from the text shows how dedicated they were to fight against “Christ’s enemies”, which were the Jews and the Muslims, and how much they desired to claim the town of Jerusalem. Now, that was the original reason for those people to head out and serve. The other however many people were attracted to this fight for what document three says, “Those who were poor there, God makes rich. Those who had few coins, here possess countless besants, and those who had not a villa, here, by the gift of god, already possess a city.” This is practically the opposite of what the before document says. It seems that the promise of religious things had twisted the minds of the Christians and the real