Final answer:
The Crusades played a critical role in the Commercial Revolution by exposing Europeans to Eastern luxuries, increasing demand for these goods, and prompting the search for new maritime trading routes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The role of the Crusades in the Commercial Revolution was multifaceted, drawing European attention to exotic goods from the East, stimulating demand for products like spices, silk, and porcelain, and ultimately inspiring a search for new trade routes to bypass expensive and dangerous overland paths.
The Crusades gave European merchants a glimpse of the wealth and goods available in the East, consequently fueling the desire for direct and more profitable trading connections.
Encounters during the Crusades spurred a period of exploration and contact with distant civilizations, with Europeans looking to expand trade and spread Christianity, leading to the improvement of navigational technologies and the establishment of new routes. This set Europe on a path toward global interconnectedness and the creation of vast trading empires.