The Second Crusade, 1147-1149, was led by Louis 7th of France and the Holy Roman Emperor and proved to be a failure (Crusades 1 pp). The purpose of the Third Crusade, 1189-1192, was to reclaim Jerusalem, which had been lost in 1187 to Saladin, the Islamic army's greatest general (Crusades 1 pp). This effort was undermined by the personal rivalry between Philip II of France and Richard I of England (Crusades I pp). Initially, the Fourth Crusade was against Egypt, an Islamic domain, however, "it was diverted by the Venetian merchants (who owned the ships the Crusaders were traveling on) to attack Christian Constantinople, a commercial rival of theirs," permanently weakening the Byzantine Empire (Crusades I pp). During the Fifth Crusade, 1218-1221, the Crusaders captured Egypt, then lost it (Crusades I pp). Then, led by the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, the Sixth Crusade, 1228-1229, recaptured Jerusalem through negotiations with the sultan of Egypt, however the city was lost again in 1244 (Crusades I pp). The Seventh Crusade, 1249-1254, and the Eighth Crusade, 1270-1291, were both led by Louis 9th of France who claimed to have been inspired by religious visions (Crusades I pp). Both of these last crusades were disasters, however, Louis was later canonized (Crusades I pp).

Although the Crusades in the Holy Land failed, they did serve as a vehicle of Western influence "by bringing the West into closer contact with new modes of living and thinking, by stimulating commerce, by giving fresh impetus to literature and invention, and by increasing geographical knowledge" (Crusades pp). This period of history increased the development of national monarchies...

Italian cities prospered, replacing the Byzantines and Muslims as merchant-traders in the Mediterranean as trade passed through Italians to Western Europe at a substantial profit (Origins pp). This commercial power became the economic base for the Italian Renaissance and also encouraged Atlantic powers such as Spain and Portugal to seek trade routes to India and China (Origins pp). The efforts of such explorers as Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, helped to initiate and expand most of the world to European trade dominance and colonization, as well as to shift the heart of commercial activity from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic (Origins pp).
The Crusades inspired the most dedicated valor and the cruelest, greediest vandalism of medieval men by offering the "opportunity for combined fulfillment of Germanic heroic aspirations and Christian ideals of brotherhood and self-sacrifice" (Crusades 3 pp).

Works Cited

The Crusades 3

http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc1/lectures/21crusades.html

The Crusades I. http://www.loyno.edu/~seduffy/crusades.html

Crusades 2

http://www.medieval-life.net/crusades.htm

Origins of the Crusades

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761561210_1____8/Crusades.html s8 pp.

Crusades

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition; 2/24/2005; pp.