Several centuries after their end, the Crusades are remembered as wars fought and lost in the name of God. The efforts and means used and maintained to continue waging a battle for more than a hundred years are still memorable. Even if we say that these wars were fought in the name of God, it is simply not that easy to define. The causes of the Crusades cannot be traced back to an isolated event but rather to various factors that contributed to creating a climate of religious fervor to fight for the name of God. Power, piety, zeal, determination are words that we can use to define some of the reasons that pushed men to wage war with another race of people, about whom little was known. The Crusades are a story as much about the nature of man as it is about the nature of politics and religion. Religious reasons led to social and economic ramifications that changed the political landscape forever. We view the Crusades as wars of religion, but a closer examination reveals that they were fought for various reasons as Europe's political, social, and economic order was facing a positive turn at the turn of the century. Expansion was prevalent, and as a result, the economy was improving dramatically from the turbulence it had experienced in the 1900s. While this all sounds good and was positive to some extent, things were still fragile. The strength and power of the unknown paved the way for the Crusades. Land, expansion, adventure, zeal, soldiers, and powerful papal leadership were the essential ingredients for the crusade, which became a “popular social movement” (Nobile 416). No one could have imagined what the Crusades meant from first to last. Peter Charanis notes that the motivating factors that drive... middle of paper... don't have to go back far in history. The reasons why seem to become secondary as the fight continues. Works Cited Charanis, Peter. "Objectives of the Medieval Crusades and How They Were Seen by Byzantium." History of the Church. 21.2. (1952) JSTOR Resource Database. Information retrieved March 5, 2009.Craig, Albert, et al. The heritage of the world. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. (2000) Mansbridge, John Marjorie Rowling, Life in the Middle Ages. New York: Perigree. (1973) Maurios, André. The miracle of England. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers. (1937) 95Noble, Thomas et al. Western civilization: the experience continues. vol. II. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. (1994) Palmer, Alan. The kings and queens of England. London: Octopus Books Limited. (1976) 9Smith, Henry. The history of the world of historians. New York: Hooper and Jackson, Ltd. (1909)