What was the primary motivation for the Crusades?
Three major factors in the order of significance are listed as follows 1. Justice as practitioners of faith Who drew first blood that ignited the centuries of passionate warefare beginning in the 11th century is answered succinctly in the followin passage; blood calling for more blood ad infinitum. “The Muslim presence in the Holy Land began with the initial Arab conquest of Palestine in the 7th century. This did not interfere much with pilgrimage to Christian holy sites or the security of monasteries and Christian communities in the Holy Land, and western Europeans were less concerned with the loss of far-away Jerusalem than, in the ensuing decades and centuries, the invasions of Europe by Muslims and other hostile non-Christians, such as the Vikings, Slavs and Magyars (some of which later became Christians). However, the Muslim armies’ successes put increasing pressure on the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire. Another factor that contributed to the change in Western attitudes towards
