Changes

Of all the events, inventions, and personalities that defined the European Middle Ages, none did more so than the Crusades. Beginning in the late eleventh century, the many kingdoms of western Europe awoke from their collective slumber to assert their power and place in the world by engaging in a series of religious wars in the Middle East, Spain, southern France, and the Baltic region. The strategic and tactical benefits of the Crusades were nominal at best for the Europeans: Jerusalem, the primary objective of the Crusaders, was taken during the First Crusade but later lost to the Muslims, never to be in Christian hands again.