- He wanted to make safer routes for people to travel to the Holy Land as they were being killed and on the way there
- He wanted to strengthen his own power
- He wanted to have the Roman Catholic Church gain more power in the Near East
- He wanted to end the disputes between the rich and the poor and felt that by redirecting their anger towards an enemy that they all hated, it would lessen their fighting
Pope Urban II was a very inspirational and motivating speaker who was able to persuade many people to join the Crusades. He was urged by his position as the religious head of Western Europe, and by the lack of opposition from Germany and France who could have taken over his idea of reclaiming the Holy Land. His moving speech appealed to people of all classes, and was more or less the right speech at the right time. With his urging, many people joined the Crusades, and thus begun the First Crusade. The First Crusade proved to be successful as the Jewish and other cities surrendered to the Christian armies. Pope Urban II, however, died before the good news of the Christians success reached him.
He even inspired the peasants with his words as Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless started to spread the Pope�s message amongst their fellow peasants. This started the Peasants� Crusade, which was very unsuccessful. They began fighting before they had even reached the Holy Land, and were killing anyone and everyone. They did not care whether the person was Christian, Jewish or Muslim. The peasants were brutally murdered by the Turks when they finally did reach the Holy Land.
