The series of military expeditions, undertaken by the
Christians of Europe for the purpose of recovering the Holy Land from the
Moslems, have received the name of crusades. In their widest aspect the
crusades may be regarded as a renewal of the age-long contest between East and
West, in which the struggle of Greeks and Persians and of Romans and
Carthaginians formed the earlier episodes. The contest assumed a new character
when Europe had become Christian and Asia Mohammedan. It was not only two
contrasting types of civilization but also two rival world religions which in
the eighth century faced each other under the walls of Constantinople and on
the battlefield of Tours. Now, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
they were to meet again.
NUMBER OF THE CRUSADES
Seven or eight chief crusades are usually enumerated. To
number them, however, obscures the fact that for nearly two hundred years
Europe and Asia were engaged in almost constant warfare. Throughout this period
there was a continuous movement of crusaders to and from the Moslem possessions
in Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.
