hi there my name is John Green this is
crash course world history and today
we're gonna talk about the Crusades Oh
Stan do we have to talk about the Jews I
hate them
here's the thing about the Crusades
which were a series of military
expeditions from parts of Europe to the
eastern coast of the Mediterranean the
real reason they feature so prominently
in history is because we've endlessly
romanticized the story of the Crusades
we've created this simple narrative with
characters to root for and to root
against and it's been endlessly
idealized by the likes of Sir Walter
Scott in their nights with swords and
Lionhearts note Stan Lionhearts thank
you
[Music]
let's start by saying that initially the
Crusades were not a holy war on the part
of Europeans against Islam but in
important ways the Crusades were driven
by religious faith mr. green mr. green
religion causes all wars imagine no I'm
gonna cut you off right there before you
violate copyright me from the past but
as usual you're wrong
simple readings of history are rarely
sufficient by the way when did my
handwriting get so much better I mean if
the Crusades had been brought on by the
lightning-fast rise of the Islamic
empire and a desire to keep in Christian
hands the land of Jesus then they would
have started in the eighth century but
early Islamic dynasties like the
Umayyads and the Ambassador perfectly
happy with Christians and Jews living
among them as long as they pay to tax
and plus the Christian pilgrimage
business was awesome for the Islamic
empires economy but then a new group of
Muslims the Seljuk Turks moved into the
region and they sacked the holy cities
and made it much more difficult for
Christians to make their pilgrimages and
while they quickly realized their
mistake it was already too late the
Byzantines who'd had their literal asses
kicked at the Battle of Manza Curtain
1071 felt the threat and called upon the
West for help so the first official
crusade began with a call to arms by
pope urban ii in 1095 c ii this was
partly because urban wanted to unite
Europe and he'd figured out the lesson
the rest of us learn from alien invasion
movies the best way to get people to
unite is to give them a common enemy
so urban called on all the bickering
Knights and nobility of Europe and he
said a--the unto his people let us go
forth and help the Byzantines because
then maybe they will acknowledge my
awesomeness and get rid of their stupid
not having me as Pope thing and while
we're at it let's liberate Jerusalem I'm
paraphrasing by the way shifting the
focus to Jerusalem was really important
because the Crusades were not primarily
military operations they were
pilgrimages theologically Christianity
didn't have an idea of a holy war like
war might be just but fighting wasn't
something that got you into heaven but
pilgrimage to a holy shrine could help
you out on that front and urban had the
key insight to pitch the crusade as a
pilgrimage with a touch of warring on
the side I do the same thing to my kid
every night I'm not feeding you dinner
featuring animal crackers I'm feeding
you animal crackers featuring dinner oh
it's time for the open letter
an open letter to animal crackers but
first let's see what's in the secret
compartment today
oh it's animal crackers thanks Stan hi
there animal crackers it's me John
Greene thanks for being delicious but
let me throw out a crazy idea here maybe
foods that are already delicious do not
need the added benefit of being
pleasingly shaped I mean why can't I get
my kid animal spinach or animal sweet
potato or even animal cooked animal I
mean we can put a man on Mars but we
can't make spinach shaped like elephants
what Stan we haven't put a man on mars
stupid world always disappointing me
best wishes John Green one last myth to
dispel the Crusades were not an example
of early European colonization of the
Middle East even if they did create some
European ish kingdoms there for a while
that's a much later post and
anti-colonialist view that comes at
least in part from a Marxist reading of
history in the case of the Crusades it
was argued the Knights who went
adventuring in the Levant were the 2nd
and 3rd sons of wealthy Nobles who
because of European inheritance rules
had little to look forward to by staying
in Europe and lots to gain in terms of
plunder by going to the east tool Theory
bro but it's not true first most of the
people who responded to the call to
crusade weren't Knights at all they were
poor people and secondly most of the
nobles who did go crusading were lords
of estates not their wastrel kids but
more importantly that analysis ignores
religious motivations we've approached
religions as historical phenomena
thinking about how for instance the
capricious environment of Mesopotamia
led to a capricious cadre of
Mesopotamian gods but just as the world
shapes religion religion also shapes the
world and some modern historians might
ignore religious motivations but
medieval Crusaders sure as hell didn't I
mean when people came up with that idiom
they clearly thought hell was for sure
to the Crusaders they were taking up
arms to protect Christ and his kingdom
and what better way to show your
devotion to God than putting a cross on
your sleeve spending 5 to 6 times your
annual income to outfit yourself and all
your horses and heading for the Holy
Land so when these people cried out God
wills it to explain their reasons for
going we should do them the favor of
believing them and the results of the
First Crusade seemed to indicate that
God had willed it following the lead of
roving preachers with names like Peter
the rabbit Peter the Hermit Stan you're
always making history less cool fine
following preachers like Peter the
Hermit thousands of peasants and Nobles
like volunteered for the first crusade
it got off to kind of a rough start
because pilgrims kept robbing those they
did encounter along the way plus there
was no real leader so there were
constant rivalries between Nobles about
who could supply the most troops notable
among the notables were Godfrey of
bouillon Boheme and of Toronto and
Raymond of Toulouse but despite the
rivalries and the disorganization the
Crusaders were remarkably some would say
miraculously successful by the time they
arrived in the Levant they were fighting
not against the seljuq turks but against
that amid egyptians who had captured the
Holy Land from the Seljuks thereby
making the Turks none too pleased with
the Egyptians at Antioch the Crusaders
reversed a seemingly hopeless situation
when a peasant found the spear that had
pierced Christ's side hidden under a
church thereby raising morale enough to
win the day and then they did the
impossible they took Jerusalem securing
it for Christendom and famously killing
a lot of people in the Alaska mosque now
the Crusaders succeeded in part because
the Turkish Muslims who were Sunnis did
not step up to help the Egyptians who
were Shia but that kind of complicated
interests ilanic rivalry gets in the way
of the awesome narrative the Christians
just saw it as a miracle so by 1100 CE e
European nobles held both Antioch and
Jerusalem as Latin Christian kingdoms I
say Latin to make the point that there
were lots of Christians living in these
cities before the Crusaders arrived they
just weren't Catholic they were Orthodox
a point that will become relevant
shortly we're gonna skip the Second
Crusade because it bores me and move on
to the Third Crusade because it's the
famous one broadly speaking the Third
Crusade was a European response to the
emergence of a new Islamic power neither
Turkish nor a Basset the Egyptian
although he was really occurred sultan
al Malik Al Nasser Salah al-din Yusuf
better known to the West as Saladin
Saladin having consolidated his power in
Egypt sought to expand by taking
Damascus and eventually Jerusalem which
he did successfully because he was an
amazing general and then the loss of
Jerusalem caused Pope Gregory the 8th to
call for a Third Crusade
three of the most important kings in
Europe answered the call Phillip
cowardly schemer ii of france Richard
Lionheart at the first of England and
Frederick I am going to drown and I
climactically on the journey while
trying to bathe in a river
Barbarossa of the not wholly not Roman
and not Imperial Holy Roman Empire both
Richard and Saladin were great generals
who earned the respect of their troops
and while from the European perspective
the crusade
was a failure because they didn't take
Jerusalem it did radically change
crusading forever by making Egypt a
target
Richard understood that his best chance
to take Jerusalem involved first taking
Egypt but he couldn't convince any
Crusaders to join him because Egypt had
a lot less religious value to Christians
than Jerusalem so Richard was forced to
call off the crusade early but if he had
just hung around until Easter of 1192 he
would have seen Saladin die and then
Richard probably could have fulfilled
all his crusading dreams but you know
then we wouldn't have needed the Fourth
Crusade
although crusading continued through the
14th century mostly with an emphasis on
North Africa and not the Holy Land the
Fourth Crusade is the last one we'll
focus on because it was the crazy one
let's go to the thought-bubble so a lot
of people volunteered for the Fourth
Crusade more than 35,000 and the
generals didn't want to march them all
the way across Anatolia because they
knew from experience that it was a
dangerous and B hot so they decided to
go by boat which necessitated the
building of the largest naval fleet
Europe had seen since the Roman Empire
the Venetians built 500 ships but then
only 11,000 Crusaders actually made it
down to Venice because like oh I meant
to go but I had a thing come up etc
there wasn't enough money to pay for
those boats so the Venetians made the
Crusaders a deal help us capture the
rebellious city of Zara and we'll ferry
you to Anatolia this was a smidge
problematic crusading wise because Zara
was a Christian City but the Crusaders
agreed to help resulting in the Pope
excommunicating both them and the
Venetians then after the Crusaders
failed to take Zara and were still broke
a would-be Byzantine Emperor named
Alexius the third promised the Crusaders
that he would pay them if they helped
him out
so the excommunicated Catholic Crusaders
fought on behalf of the Orthodox Alexius
who soon became emperor in
Constantinople
but it took Alexius a while to come up
with the money he'd promised the
Crusaders so they were waiting around in
Constantinople and then Alexius was
suddenly dethroned by the awesomely
named morte sockless leaving the
Crusaders stuck in Constantinople with
no money Christian warriors couldn't
very well sack the largest city in
Christendom could they well it turns out
they could and boy did they they took
all the wealth they could find killed
and raped Christians as they went stole
the statues of horses but now adorn
Saint Mark's Cathedral in Venice and
retook exactly none of the holy
thanks thought-bubble so you'd think
this disaster would discredit the whole
notion of crusading right no instead it
would jidam eyes the idea that crusading
didn't have to be about pilgrimage that
any enemies of the Catholic Church were
fair games also the Fourth Crusade
pretty much doomed the Byzantine Empire
which never really recovered
Constantinople a shadow of its former
self was conquered by the Turks in 1453
so ultimately the Crusades were a total
failure at establishing Christian
kingdoms in the Holy Land long term and
with the coming of the Ottomans the
region remained solidly Muslim as it
mostly is today and the Crusades didn't
really open up lines of communication
between the Christian and Muslim worlds
because those lines of communication
were already open plus most historians
now agree that the Crusades didn't bring
Europe out of the Middle Ages by
offering it contact with the superior
intellectual accomplishments of the
Islamic world in fact they were a
tremendous drain on Europe's resources
for me the Crusades matter because they
remind us that the medieval world was
fundamentally different from ours the
men and women who took up the cross
believed in the CICC raledi of their
work in a way that we often can't even
conceive of today and when we focus so
much on the heroic narrative or the
anti-imperialist narrative or all the
political infighting we can lose sight
of what the Crusades must have meant to
the Crusaders how that journey from
pilgrimage to holy war transformed their
faith and their lives and ultimately
that exercise and empathy is the coolest
thing about studying history thanks for
watching we'll see you next week crash
course is produced and directed by Stan
Muller our script supervisor is Danica
Johnson our graphics team is thought
bubble and the show is written by my
high school history teacher Raoul Meyer
and myself if you enjoyed today's video
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thanks for watching I apologize to my
prudish fans for leaving both buttons
unbuttoned and as we say in my hometown
don't forget to be awesome