The Crusader states that were set up in the aftermath of the First Crusade represent the achievement of these aims, and the expansion of the Western feudal system into the East. Military orders such as the Knights Hospitallers early combined the idea of religious objectives with the acquisition of landed estates. The Order was already acquiring extensive lands in Europe itself by the early Twelfth Century.
The creation of Crusader states in the Holy Land also amounted to the direct physical expansion of Latin Christendom. The rulers of these states were directly tied to the ruling houses of the West. Resident in their new domains they acquired a taste for the more luxuriant lifestyle of Islamic lands. High-quality metal goods, fine glass, enamels, and even simple souvenirs of the East, were in increasing demand in the West.
The Crusades stimulated a materialism that was not the intent of the Pope's message. Much as the contact with Islamic Civilization stimulated a growing refinement in European culture, and so transformed the comparatively simple material world of Eleventh Century Western Europe, the influence of the modern-day West on today's Islamic world is a frequent source of violent reaction. Islamist jihadists seek to wage war against a West they see as working counter to Muslim culture and traditions. The contemporary jihadist is eerily similar to the medieval Christian Crusader though his objectives are in many ways reversed. While the Crusader unintentionally brought back elements of a foreign culture, the jihadist seeks to eliminate those foreign elements. The material aims are opposed while many of the sacred motives remain the same - two religions locked in physical combat for the souls of the inhabitants of the Middle East and the wider world.
Works Cited
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