Map Of Italian Lighthouses
map of Italian Lighthouses
How the crusades influenced trade during the Middle Ages
The nine Crusades that lasted over a period of 200 years (1095-1291), kept all Europe in tumult. Aiming to regain control of Jerusalem from the Islamic forces and to impede the expansion of Seljuk Turks into Anatolia, Christian Western Europe initiated a series of military campaigns that cost Christendom millions of lives. In spite of the war, suffering, disorder and crime, the Crusades contributed massively in the evolution of European civilization.
Without any doubt, one of the most important effects of the Crusades in Europe was the increased trade and economy.
First and foremost, the Crusades created the need for the supply of the armies in the Middle East. Mainly the Italian city-states of Pisa, Genoa and Venice provided vessels to transfer the crusaders to the Middle East. The Christian soldiers were enthralled by exotic goods of the Holy Land that were both costly and rare to their European countries. Consequently, the vessels returned filled with tea, coffee, sugar, spices, crops, oranges, apples, silk, ivory, jade, diamonds, cotton, tobacco, and porcelain, among other goods. Little by little, the trade of these luxury goods flourished in Genoa and Pisa, while cities in Northern Europe, namely Hamburg, Lobeck, and Bremen, grew prosperous. This created the need for better infrastructure and the establishment of many port cities throughout Europe. Roads that were largely unused before the Crusades experienced significant increase in traffic as local traders and merchants began to expand their horizons.
As a result of trade expansion, in the later years of the 1200s, the merchants of the above cities established the Hanseatic League. This confederation provided protection for merchants by supplying lighthouses and maps of harbors and by standardizing weights and measures.
Over time, European economy strengthened and stabilized, shifting from a barter economy to a money economy. More and more people began to engage in the trading of goods traveling long distances for a long period of time. This made business more complex creating the need for letters of credit and documents of exchange. Besides, merchants acquired enormous power and became wealthier by lending money to kings and nobles in support of the Crusades. Eventually, the growth of business and the need for a controlling mechanism of money lending led to the establishment of the first structured banking system.
The growth of the economy led to the increase of the food production. Consequently, the European population grew further creating the need for the establishment of new towns and cities. This led to the creation of a new social class, the European middle class.
Besides, the expansion of trade allowed the influence of Arab texts and translations of classical Greek and Roman literature on the European population which led to the great intellectual explosion that became known as the Revival of Learning and the period of Italian Renaissance.
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I work as a financial and investment advisor but my passion is writing, music and photography. Writing mostly about finance, business and music, being an amateur photographer and a professional dj, I am inspired from life.
Being a strong advocate of simplicity in life, I love my family, my partner and all the people that have stood by me with or without knowing. And I hope that someday, human nature will cease to be greedy and demanding realizing that the more we have the more we want and the more we satisfy our needs the more needs we create. And this is so needless after all.
