The Start of the Crusades: The Origins of the World’s Most Famous Religious Wars

Though it went largely unremarked in the Islamic world at the time, the First Crusade has since become a contentious symbol of European imperialism in the Middle East. Debate over whether the Crusades can truly be perceived as an early example of European colonialism continues in medieval historiography, though the evidence for this is thin. The territory taken by the Franks from the Turks had previously belonged to Eastern Christians and had only recently been seized by the Turks themselves. The Crusader States were relatively small and weak, and they were reconquered centuries before modern European colonialism began. The Crusaders themselves saw it as a holy war of reclamation of previously lost (albeit almost-mythical) territory. To them, the Muslims were the first aggressors, and they were somewhat bolstered in this view by the support that they largely held from local Christians.  

The Crusader States were relatively small and weak, and while they tried to be a bulwark of Christianity in the Holy Land, the Crusader States were reconquered centuries before modern European colonialism began. Nonetheless, the Crusades and the Crusader States galvanized the Christians of Western Europe to expand their world. While it remains unclear how much that world expanded in practical terms such as trade, or how it affected later attitudes during the expansion to the New World and other regions, it definitely engaged the European mind in both positive and negative ways. As such, the crusades soon achieved near-mythic status in the European literature and remain among the most important events of the Middle Ages.

At the same time, the Crusader States were not one homogenized region but actually several distinct territories that had their own unique histories and interests. In fact, many of them were founded a century apart.