I’m confused about what exactly caused the First Crusade. Was it in response to hundreds of years of Islamic advances? Or was it a conquest campaign to strengthen the Church’s grip?

by Warm-Sheepherder-597

Why did Pope Urban II issue the decree to fight the Muslims?

WelfOnTheShelf

Neither of those, really. My usual answer here is to point to two previous posts:

A "Saturday Showcase" post on Why did the First Crusade happen? by u/J-Force

Does anyone know of any contemporary sources detailing the motivations of crusaders on the first crusade in 1096? (by me)

And several older answers in the Crusades FAQ.

voyeur324

/u/Ambarenya has previously answered Who started the Crusades?

/u/thejukeboxhero has previously answered Were the crusades an inevitable event, or were they purely the brainchild of Pope Urban?

EDIT: There are many redditors who study the Crusades from different angles and may have different answers than those linked above.

tombomp

/u/WelfOnTheShelf has written a huge amount of answers on crusade questions, I'd recommend checking out the motivations section on their user profile https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/profiles/welfontheshelf