The Crusades took place in the late 1000s and continued into the early 1200s. The Crusades were the call of Christians to defend the Earth Saint by Pope Urban II. Byzantine emperor Alexios Comnenus needed help to stop the Muslim invasion. He called on the Pope and Western European leaders to stop the Muslim advance. Pope Urban encouraged Christians by writing about the need to recover the Holy Land. These crusades had profound effects on both the European nations that participated in them and little on the Islamic world. Under the leadership of the Pope, the identity of the Catholic was consolidated. The hope of repairing the schism between East and West was ended by the conflict between the Latin crusaders and the Orthodox Christians. This conflict weakened the Byzantine Empire but temporarily protected it from Muslim invasion. Many nobles who participated in the Crusades never returned, and many others wasted their fortunes paying the costs of their adventures. At the same time, the cities also gained many political advantages at the expense of the crusader barons and princes. The money available during the Crusades was in the pockets of the middle class, and in exchange for the money lent to their overlords, they received documents granting them special and valuable privileges. Another political effect of the Crusades was that, because the Turks were stopped, the fall of Constantinople was postponed for three centuries or more. This gave Germany's early Christian civilization time to gain the strength needed to repel the returning Muslims when they reached Europe in the 15th century. Politically, European monarchies are strengthening. Since many nobles did not return from the Crusades or lost the middle...... middle of paper ...... Exploration. Compared to the Islamic world, there appears to be little documentation of the economic effects of the Crusades. We can deduce that trade was strengthened as was the case in Western Europe. Although the Pope did not condone trade with Muslims, it probably occurred. With all the crusaders' beautification of the Muslims, the desire to be more like them would have been satisfied through trade and access to the same goods as these more advanced peoples. In Western Europe, the Crusades sparked an economic revolution that culminated in the Renaissance. In conclusion, the Crusades had enormous consequences for both the Muslim world and Western Europe. The political structures, economies and culture of the Western world have been radically changed. It seems that the Islamic world has not experienced as spectacular progress as Western Europe..