Appealing to the Pope for Crusades

The appeal for the Crusades was successful because it focused on threats to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, which sparked a movement of tens of thousands of people to defend these important Christian sites. The delay in responding to the threats for 450 years was due to the situation in the East suddenly worsening in the 1090s, leading to the initiation of several Crusades over the next few hundred years with the establishment of colonies in Antioch, Tripoli, and Jerusalem.