The Long-Term Impact of the Crusades

The success of the First Crusade was a mirage. The European toehold in the Middle East could not last. Numerous new crusades were called, and eight major ones took place between the first in 1096 and the last at the end of the thirteenth century. But most Europeans were not willing to commit the vast resources and personnel that would have been necessary to maintain the crusader states, which fell to the Muslims permanently in 1291. In Europe, the crusades to the Holy Land became a sort of myth—an elusive goal that receded before more pressing ventures nearer to home. Yet they inspired far-flung expeditions like Columbus’s in 1492. Although the crusades stimulated trade a bit, especially enhancing the prosperity of Italian cities like Venice, the commercial revolution would have happened without them. On the other hand, modern taxation systems may well have been stimulated by the machinery of revenue collection used to finance the crusades.

In the Middle East, the crusades worsened—but did not cause—Islamic disunity. Before the crusades, Muslims had a complex relationship with the Christians in their midst—taxing but not persecuting them, allowing their churches to stand and be used, permitting pilgrims into Jerusalem to visit the holy sites of Christ’s life and death. In many ways, the split between Shi‘ite and Sunni Muslims was more serious than the rift between Muslims and Christians. The crusades, and especially the conquest of Jerusalem, shocked and dismayed Muslims: “We have mingled blood with flowing tears,” wrote one of their poets, “and there is no room left in us for pity.”