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This was the first of many steps towards reopening international trade through the west since the fall of the Western Roman Empire as 5 small states were set up in the region under the rule of the leaders of the crusade.

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The crusaders had achieved their goals, and Jerusalem was now under Christian authority, but an Egyptian army challenged their claim weeks later only to be defeated, ending all Muslim resistance to the Europeans for the time being.

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The crusaders then took over the Turkish cities of Nicaea and Antioch, and after reorganizing for 6 months, set off toward their ultimate goal of Jerusalem. Their numbers were reduced to less than 15,000, but once the crusaders arrived at Jerusalem, they launched an attack towards the city, and successfully captured it in 1099, massacring many of the city’s Muslim and Jewish inhabitants.

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The first crusaders, known as the “people’s crusade” were a group of quite undisciplined French and German peasants, who even though saw little success, managed to journey as far as Constantinople before being acknowledged and annihilated by the Turks. Beginning the crusade in 1096, the main crusading force of some 30,000 nobility, knights, peasants and serfs from many western European regions travelled over land and sea east and crossed Asia Minor in 1097.

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To this appeal in November of 1095 at the council of Clermont in Southern France, there was a tremendous response among levels of new class knights, as well as ordinary citizens, and it was then determined that a cross would be worn by all crusaders as a token of their religious belief and as a symbol of honour and respect towards Pope Urban II.

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This appeal from Alexios I Komnenos, which was responded to by Pope Urban II gave rise to the main goals- to check the spread of Islam, to re-take control of the pagan areas, to recapture formerly Christian territory, a re-conquest of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and the freeing of Eastern Christians from Muslim rule.

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The crusades began with Pope Urban II responding to an appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who requested western aid in repelling the invasion of Seljuk Turks from Anatolia who were bearing down on Constantinople, the then capital of the Byzantine Empire, after the fall of Western Roman Empire.

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Beginning in 1095, The Crusades were wars fought between western Christians and Muslims for the control of Jerusalem and other holy places. These Christian soldiers earned the title “Crusaders”, coming from the Latin word “crux” meaning cross, as the soldiers all wore crosses as a symbol of their religion.