Introduction
The history of the Crusades can be characterized by nine military campaigns directed against non-Catholic religions. Crusades have strongly affected the East and Western Europe this is why it is necessary to provide some historical background about Byzantine Empire and to find out how the Crusades shaped Europe’s interaction with the East, how they affected Western Europe, Church reform, and whether Russia had any effect on cultural and military developments in Europe.
Discussion
To begin with, the fall of Western Roman Empire gave rise to Byzantine whose people valued their cultural identity above all. Rome together with surrounding territories was regarded as the most powerful part of the Empire which due to its flexibility lived through the sack of Rome being able to preserve customs and traditions of the Roman Empire, which included Latin and Greek art and works of literature. Ottoman Turks’ invasion of Constantinople “drove scholars of classical Greek to flee westward with their libraries, bringing Plato and Aristotle’s complete works to the Latin West” (Wider & Winks 3). This is how Roman customs and traditions were transmitted to the West.
Back then Europe used to be treated as isolated from the rest of the world. European society lacked progress and was failing; Renaissance helped it get back to evolution because numerous Crusades “shaped European self-perception for three hundred years: The hidalgos in Spain saw themselves as carrying out a Cruzada, or Crusade, first against the Muslims and Jews within the Iberian peninsula, then against the Aztec and Incan empires” (Wider & Winks 3).
Furthermore, the Crusades hindered growth and evolution of the Western Europe but it cannot be denied that they were to some extent beneficial for it. A number of crusaders and pilgrims who returned home from the East brought various foreign words contributing to the existing language. There appeared such words as “tariff” and “bazaar” borrowed from Arabic, “douane” and “dogana” borrowed from French and Italian respectively, and a lot of others. The Crusades also increased commercial growth of the West. “Thus, the Crusades contributed to introduction of new products and helped create the conditions that led to modern methods of finance” (Wider & Winks 10). They also resulted in moving of population to the towns, which improved the lives of rural people.
In general, the Crusades’ impact on the Church reform lied in enforcing church laws and cutting the pope’s powers. Crusades fought ardently defending the Faith, while “the papacy devoted enormous effort to planning, taxing and campaigning, especially through naval warfare” (Wider & Winks 10). All this took place during the Late Crusades and resulted in Catholic Church’s using economic sanctions for protecting the land from Non-Christians.
Finally, Russia did not have much influence on Europe in the Late Middle Ages. Starting from the thirteenth century Russia was under Tatar rule and remained under it for two hundred years. This weakened the country and resulted in its lacking behind the West. It is only in the seventeenth century that Russia was opened to foreign ideas which started gradually penetrating the country.
Conclusion
Thus, it was discovered that the Crusades promoted the development of Europe by shaping its self-perception, increased commercial growth of the Western Europe, enforced church laws and limited pope’s powers. As far as Russia is concerned, it did not affect cultural and military developments in Europe because it was weakened after its invasion by Tatars.
Works Cited
Winks, R.W., Wandel, L.P. Europe in a Wider World, 1350-1650. Oxford University Press, 2003