When, at the Council of Clermont in 1095, Pope Urban II
called for an armed pilgrimage to liberate the Holy Land, he
brought into existence a movement that was to have profound
consequences for the history of Europe, the Near
East, and North Africa for centuries to come. Hundreds of
thousands of men and women took part in crusade expeditions
to various goals, a huge number of them dying in the
process. Millions of people lived as subjects of states that
were brought into existence as a direct consequence of crusades
to Palestine and Syria, to the Baltic lands, and to
Greece and the islands of the eastern Mediterranean. Others
served as members of religious orders established to
protect pilgrims or ransom captives, while many more supported
crusades through taxes and voluntary donations, or
by prayers and participation in the liturgy of the Christian
Church. Many of the political, economic, religious, and
artistic consequences of the crusades are still apparent in
the world that we live in.