In the beginning of the thirteenth century most people were Roman Catholic. The churchwas the center of life and it was very important to them to pilgrimage to the Holy Lands. By 1212 Christians were not allowed into the Holy Lands. The Moslems controlled thoselands and would not let them in. The crusades were a series of wars, that were fought inorder to attain control over the Holy Lands. Some of the crusades were successful andsome of them were not successful. The first crusade was led by Pope Urban then second in 1096. It took the over twoyears to reach the Holy Lands. They had started with over six-hundred thousand men andby the time they reached the Holy Lands they were down to a mere twenty-five thousandmen. This was a successful crusade, and they gained control over the Holy Lands for fiftyyears. The Second Crusade took place in 1145 and was led by Louis the Seventh ofFrance . However, this crusade ended up being unsuccessful because everything just fellapart for them. The Third Crusade had many important leaders that started out. King Richard, thelionhearted, Phil Augustas, and Fredrick Barbossa all helped lead it. However, only King Richard reached the Holy Lands. The other two unfortunately drowned. KingRichard managed to get a treaty with the Moslems to have a safe passage through the HolyLands. The Children’s crusade took place in 1212, when a twelve year old boy had avision that Jesus called him to have a crusade. Thirty-thousand children went, only a fewadults went with them. Many of the children died. When they got to Italy the shipscaptains sold them into slavery. The crusades were very important for many reasons. It brought forth new ideas,words, and products. Commerce then came from the new products, and money and coinsdeveloped from commerce. There was decline of feudalism and they gained newknowledge about medicine. There was also a growth of towns and of the middle class. ...
