e and enrich the
life of the Europeans. For, with all the noble spirit manifested in
government and in social life, western Europe was semibarbaric in the
meagreness of the articles of material wealth there represented. The
Italian cities, seizing the opportunity of the contact of the West with
the East, developed a surprising trade with the Oriental cities and
with the northwest of Europe, and thus enhanced their power.[1] From
this impulse of trade that carried on commerce with the Orient largely
through the Italian cities, there sprang up a group of Hanse towns in
the north of Europe. From a financial standpoint we find that money
was brought into use and became from this time on a necessity.
Money-lending became a business, and those who had treasure instead of
keeping it lying idle and unfruitful were now able to develop wealth,
not only for the borrower but also for the lender. This tended to
increase the rapid movement of wealth and to stimulate productive
industry and trade in every direction.

_General Influence of the Crusades on Civilization_.--We see, then,
that it mattered little whether Jerusalem was taken by the Turks or the
Christians, or whether thousands of Christians lost their lives in a
great and holy cause, or whether the Mohammedans triumphed or were
defeated at Jerusalem--the great result of the crusades was one of
education of the people of Europe. The boundaries of life were
enlarged, the power of thought increased, the opportunities for doing
and living multiplied. It was the breaking away from the narrow shell
of its own existence to the newly discovered life of the Orient that
gave Europe its first impulse toward a larger life. And to this extent
the crusades may be said to have been a {327} great civilizer. Many
regard them as merely accidental phenomena difficult to explain, and
yet, by tracing the various unobserved influences at work in their
preparation, we shall see it was merely one phase of a great
transitional movement in the progress of human life, just as we have
seen that the feudal system was transitional between one form of
government and another. The influence of the crusades on civilization
was immense in giving it an impulse forward.

Under the general intellectual awakening, commercial enterprise was
quickened, industry developed, and new ideas of government and art
obtained. The boundaries of Christian influences were extended and new
nationalities were streng