Crusade comes from the word “Cruciata” meaning “to be marked with a cross” because the Crusades were wars between Christians and Muslims battling for the Holy Land. The First Crusade began in 1095 after Pope Urban II delivered his speech asking all of “God’s children” to wage war on the Saracens, which was what the Christians called the Muslims, in order to take back the Holy Land, also known as Jerusalem. Despite there being several crusades, only the first one was successful in gaining control of the Holy Land which was soon lost during the Third Crusade. Although religious devotion was the Pope’s main reason for the Crusades, they were mainly caused by social and political factors such as the Crusader’s desire for adventure, opportunity to escape their homelands and to gain money or power.
Before the Crusades began, multiple countries controlled by the church were experiencing problems with economy, famine, and politics. Due to the agricultural demands, the production of industrial crops increased and the production of crops for consumption decreased. As well as a
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The main goal was to improve the political, social and economical power of Europe. For most Crusaders, fighting in the Holy War seemed like a win-win situation; they could achieve their own goals such as adventure or gaining land as well as get into heaven. Despite the Pope mostly mentioning in his speech the religious reasons for the Crusades, he hoped to gain land, power, and solve political problems through the wars. If the Crusades had been caused mainly by religious devotion, economics and politics would not have played such a large part. For example, the King would not have encouraged the more troublesome knights to take part in the wars but rather his most able ones. The Crusades were caused equally by political, economical, social and religious factors as each individual had a different goal to achieve by taking