As you may recall, the period of the eleventh and twelfth centuries were when the Crusades took place in the Holy Land. The Roman Catholic Church was on the rebound from serious political and moral reform due to the serious amounts of corruption that existed in their papal offices. As such, the Crusades was a time-period in which they attempted to strengthen their reputation in order to hold more power in controlling the peoples of their territory, among other reasons.
The most direct and obvious cause of the Crusades is the Muslim hostility evident in their takeover of the Holy Land and their battling with Spain. The religious significance of the area was too great for the Christians to simply ignore the fact that Muslims had control over a sacred land. Also noteworthy to consider is the massive population increase that began in the tenth and eleventh centuries primarily due to the use of a mechanized water wheel for grinding grain and a good climate for th
The Crusades served primarily to be a political showroom for the Roman Catholic Church, demonstrating to their people that the church had their power back. And this was proven by the tremendous outpouring of support the church received for their attacks on the Muslims.
And you could say that they accomplished the political goal of regaining the faith of their followers. The outpouring of desire to have involvement in the crusading was huge, due because of the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, but also because it was considered honorable to fight a holy war. If the ultimate goal in life was to get into heaven in the end, then surely fighting on the side of the church would achieve that goal especially in the time period of rapprochement granted by Pope Urban II. Thus the Crusades were very popular amongst all who belonged to the RCC Empire. From a military standpoint, the Crusades were an utter failure. The Crusaders managed to acquire Jerusalem and