Medieval Europe was a time of war and conflict between different peoples. One of the most important military endeavors of the time was called the Crusades, which was a campaign of Christian attempts to take Jerusalem from the Muslims, who occupied it at the time. Spread over several hundred years, many bloody battles were fought over the holy city. The Crusades involved the two largest religions on the continent and impacted a massive amount of people. The battles irreparably changed the lives of everyone they touched, turning peasants to knights and nobles to slaves. These sudden changes for so many people prompted an array of religious, political, and economic changes throughout medieval Europe. The Crusades greatly impacted the two religions involved. Christian attacks and massacres of the Muslims encouraged bitterness and hostility between these groups of people. In addition to fighting with the Muslims, passing Christian armies often massacred and sacked entire Jewish communities without any provocation. This meant that Jews as well as Muslims had good reason to detest Christians, and may be the one of the roots of the tensions between the religions to this day. In addition to this, the Pope’s power and role changed over the course of the Crusades. The first Crusade was largely …show more content…
Relationships between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism were worsened, and the Pope lost a great deal of his power during the Crusades. European politics were shifted dramatically from feudalism to large towns and cities with bustling trade. Monarchs ruled the beginnings of modern European countries. People learned about other cultures and expanded their views of the world because of the effects of the Crusades. A large amount of crucial progress was made in medieval Europe as a result of the Crusades, and the battles fought over Jerusalem created ripples that still show in European countries to this