The crusades . . . . .

When it comes to the technological advantages of the time, certainly not - most of the large armies and forces put in there were expensive to maintain, prone to mutiny, tactically inept in desert and middle eastern conditions, and were ineffectual at the end of the crusading period. )(EDIT) Regard the example of Louis IX in - who went into Egypt against the Mamluks and had his whole army more or less slaughtered. The Latin empire in the early 1200s (...which had arisen from the Crusading forces sent by the Pope to aid the Byzantine emperor Alexius V and to place him back on his throne from which he had been usupred by (I think...) his uncle) obviously had the potential to give Europe quite a lot of money, but it did not because the crusaders remained in Constantinople and the core territories of the Byzantine empire and formed a micro-empire, and so not much of the potential revenue actually went to the European nations at all. Also, the Latin empire just destablisized the Byzantine empire even more and caused confusion within the empire which was actually a buffer state between the South of Europe and the Ayyubids and Persians, so destablising it was probably a bad idea for the crusaders who relied of Byzantine supplies, support and use as a base of operations. The more I write and read about the subject the more it seems like a complete disaster - even the Crusading forces were divided among eachother and when they were in the holy land, they often founded their own kingdoms so that none of the booty went back to Europe whatsoever. Although trade routes were probably aided by the creation of the kingdom of Jerusalem and other crusading kings, it is unlikely that the Byzantine fleet and Crusading fleet at this period could do much to prevent spadaric raids by Muslim pirates and Ayyubid and Mamluk fleets. Its also worth pointing out that, however, in contrast it did socially and spiritually unite Europe and it's many nations in a way that was never really considered in the medieval period. Many nations adhered to the pope's call for peace in Europe for the duration of the crusades and perhaps from this perspective I did give a period of respite for the early/mid medieval economies and societies to get up on their feet as it were.