The Elementary Study On The Northern Crusades In The Middle Ages

In the High Middle Ages, the European Catholics launched the Northern crusades in the name of Holy War to fight against the enemies of Church, the Baltic heathens. The Popes authorized the wars and granted the participants indulgence and privileges as same as those of the crusades who saved the Holy Land. The Northern crusades lasted nearly four centuries, and conquered Wends, Livonians, Estonians, Prussians etc. The western European and Scandinavian Christians, the Baltic heathens, and Orthodox Russians were involved in the wars. The Northern crusades were the important factors of Latin-Christianization and Germanization in these conquered regions, and reoriented the civilization of these societies. The Northern crusades were a link between these regions and Western Europe. They brought these societies into a common Latin Christendom, with profound influence over distribution of political and religious power in the north-east Europe. After the Northern crusades, the last heathendom disappeared in the medieval Europe, thus a Christian Europe finally formed.