why were the crusades fought

The Crusades were fought mainly to retake Jerusalem and other holy places for Latin Christianity, to halt or reverse the expansion of Muslim powers, and to channel European knights’ violence into a “holy war” that promised spiritual rewards.

Core reasons in a nutshell

• Religious goal: capture or defend the Holy Land, above all Jerusalem, which Christians saw as rightfully theirs because of its association with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

• Defensive and political goal: support the Byzantine Empire against Turkish advances and try to stop further Muslim expansion into Christian territories.

• Spiritual goal: popes promised forgiveness of sins and eternal rewards to those who “took the cross,” turning warfare into a form of penitential pilgrimage.

• Social and economic motives: knights and nobles hoped for land, status, and plunder; merchants looked for new trade routes and markets.

In medieval terms, many crusaders believed they were defending God’s honor and their faith, even while committing extreme violence.

Background: what were the Crusades?

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns launched mainly by Western European Christians between the late 11th and 13th centuries, with crusading ideas stretching into later centuries.

They began after Pope Urban II’s call in 1095, which urged knights to go east to aid Byzantium and liberate Jerusalem, framing the expedition as both a war and a pilgrimage.

Who called them and why?

• Popes:
  • Wanted to assert leadership over Christendom and unite quarrelling European nobles under a single sacred cause.

* Sought to strengthen the papacy’s authority and direct violence outward, rather than within Europe.

• Byzantine emperors:
  • Asked for military help to recover lost lands and push back Turkish powers threatening Constantinople.

• Preachers and churchmen:
  • Portrayed the campaigns as righteous wars that could “wash away sins” if fought in the right spirit.

Religious motives

Religion was the most visible and emotionally powerful reason, even if not the only one.

• Jerusalem and the Holy Land
  • Contained key Christian sites like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed to mark Jesus’ tomb.

* The loss of Christian control over these sites, and reports of difficulties for pilgrims, became a rallying cry in sermons.

• Holy war as penance
  • Participants were promised indulgences: spiritual benefits including remission of sins if they fought as instructed.

* Many crusaders described their journey in pilgrimage terms, combining devotion (visiting shrines, praying) with warfare.

• Defense of the faith
  • The campaigns were framed as a response to centuries of Muslim expansion and as protection of fellow Christians in the East.

Political, social, and economic motives

Alongside faith, there were hard-headed power and material interests.

• For rulers and elites
  • Western nobles and kings hoped to carve out principalities in the eastern Mediterranean and strengthen their prestige.

* The papacy used crusades to extend influence beyond Italy and increase its moral authority over secular rulers.

• For ordinary knights
  • Younger sons without much inheritance saw chances for land, booty, and social advancement in the East.

* The movement offered a way to turn a violent career into something seen as spiritually meaningful and honorable.

• For merchants
  • Italian city-states such as Venice and Genoa sought control of key ports and lucrative trade routes linking Europe to Asia.

How people at the time justified them

From different viewpoints, the same wars could look very different.

• Western Christian viewpoint
  • Many sermon writers and chroniclers described the Crusades as just wars ordained by God to rescue oppressed Christians and recover sacred spaces.

* Successes like the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 were celebrated as miracles and divine approval, despite the massacres that accompanied them.

• Eastern Christian viewpoint
  • Some Byzantine elites initially saw crusaders as useful allies against Turks but later resented their arrogance, plundering, and the disastrous conquest of Constantinople in 1204.

• Muslim viewpoint
  • Muslim chroniclers often portrayed crusaders as brutal invaders but also framed resistance as a defensive jihad to protect Muslim lands and holy sites.

These wars also led to long-term contacts—sometimes trade and cultural exchange, sometimes more entrenched hostility—between Latin Christians, Eastern Christians, Muslims, and Jewish communities.

TL;DR: The Crusades were fought because Western Christian leaders combined powerful religious goals (regaining Jerusalem, defending the faith, winning salvation) with political, social, and economic ambitions (territory, power, trade, and redirecting knightly violence), producing a series of bloody “holy wars” whose legacy is still debated today.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.