The Influence Of The Fourth Crusades On Western Europe

In response to the growing threat of the Muslim expansion against the Holy Roman Empire and the rest of Europe, Pope Urban II set forth a hazardous request at the Council of Clermont in 1095 for an army of Eastern and Western Christian warriors and nobility to fight a Holy War against the Muslims and other religious heretics. Four crusade missions were led, three of which were sent in hopes of recapturing the Holy Lands in Palestine from the Muslims, but ultimately failed. The Fourth Crusade was funded by the Venetians and ended with crusaders attacking the city of Constantinople to increase land and trade power. The overall impact of these four crusades on Western Europe can be seen in the expansion and growth of trade, the growth of towns and reduction of noble power, and the recovery of ancient artifacts and texts.
In these journeys and city sackings, crusaders came back to their homes, manors, and castles with all of their foreign loot and brought a desire for trade to Western Europe for objects from Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and Palestine. Merchants created new trade routes and revived old trade routes in order to buy and sell to people in the East. On top of this resurgence to trade in Western Europe, new navigational tools were created and traded during and after the crusades. These tools were used to help crusaders and merchants to travel to these lands for conquest and trade, which widened the market for merchants in the West and increased the variety of trade goods available to Western