Christendom: the Importance of the Crusades
Subject Knowledge: Definitions
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Subject Knowledge: The Crusades
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Subject Knowledge: The Impact on Medieval England
- Some historians consider the Crusades the single most important series of events in the Middle Ages. The significant changes in the structure of European society that took place in the 12th and 13th Centuries were long considered the direct result of Europe's participation in the Crusades.
- The effort of raising armies and providing supplies stimulated the economy, trade benefited, as well, especially once the Crusader States were established.
- Urban's vision of having a common foe and common objective, even for those who didn't participate in the Crusade, fostered a view of Christendom as a united entity.
- Medieval England gained a lot from the Crusades. The Crusaders took many items from the Middle East and the British Museum still holds items brought back from the Crusades.
- Food Products: rice, coffee, sherbet, dates, apricots, lemons, sugar, spices, melons, rhubarb and dates
- Household Goods: mirrors, carpets, cotton cloth for clothing, ships compassess, writing paper, wheelbarrows, mattresses and shawls
- New Ideas: chess, arabic figures 0-9, pain killing drugs, algebra, irrigation, chemistry, the colour scarlet, water wheels, and water clocks
Teaching and Lesson Ideas
- On a map of the world, colour which areas were Christian and which were Muslim, and highlight where Jerusalem is
- Create a timeline showing the dates of each Crusade, including somewhere for students to assess how successful the Crusades were overall
- True or False game on what England gained from the Crusades
- Design a uniform for a Crusader, keep their religion and that they came from across in Europe to fight together
- Use Fulcher's accounts as a source for what it would have been like to fight in the Crusades, assess for historical significance and reliability, compare and contrast with other types of sources
- Using Fulcher's accounts as a guide, ask students to write their own account of what they think it would have been like to fight in the Crusades
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