Download The Fourth Crusade - 1202 - 1261 The real author of the Fourth

The Fourth Crusade - 1202 - 1261
The real author of the Fourth Crusade was the famous pope, Innocent III. Young,
enthusiastic, and ambitious for the glory of the Papacy, he revived the plans of Pope
Urban II and sought once more to unite the forces of Christendom against Islam. No
emperor or king answered his summons, but a number of knights (chiefly French) took
the crusader's vow. None of the Crusades, after the Third, effected much in the Holy
Land; either their force was spent before reaching it, or they were diverted from their
purpose by different objects and ambitions. The crusaders of the Fourth expedition
captured Constantinople instead of Jerusalem.
The Fourth Crusade - The Crusaders and the Venetians
The leaders of the crusade decided to make Egypt their objective point, since this
country was then the center of the Moslem power. Accordingly, the crusaders proceeded
to Venice, for the purpose of securing transportation across the Mediterranean. The
Venetians agreed to furnish the necessary ships only on condition that the crusaders
first seized Zara on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. Zara was a Christian city, but it
was also a naval and commercial rival of Venice. In spite of the pope's protests the
crusaders besieged and captured the city. Even then they did not proceed against the
Moslems. The Venetians persuaded them to turn their arms against Constantinople. The
possession of that great capital would greatly increase Venetian trade and influence in
the East; for the crusading nobles it held out endless opportunities of acquiring wealth
and power. Thus it happened that these soldiers of the Cross, pledged to war with the
Moslems, attacked a Christian city, which for centuries had formed the chief bulwark of
Europe against the Arab and the Turk.
The Fourth Crusade - The Sack of Constantinople in 1204
The crusaders, now better styled the invaders, took Constantinople by storm. No
"infidels" could have treated in worse fashion this home of ancient civilization. They
burned down a great part of it; they slaughtered the inhabitants; they wantonly
destroyed monuments, statues, paintings, and manuscripts - the accumulation of a
thousand years. Much of the movable wealth they carried away. Never, declared an eyewitness of the scene, had there been such plunder since the world began.
The Fourth Crusade - The Wealth of Constantinople
The victors hastened to divide between them the lands of the Roman Empire in the East.
Venice gained some districts in Greece, together with nearly all the Aegean islands. The
chief crusaders formed part of the remaining territory into the Latin Empire of
Constantinople. It was organized in fiefs, after the feudal manner. There was a prince of
Achaia, a duke of Athens, a marquis of Corinth, and a count of Thebes. Baldwin, Count
of Flanders, was crowned Emperor of the East. Large districts, both in Europe and Asia,
did not acknowledge, however, these "Latin" rulers. The new empire lived less than
sixty years. At the end of this time the Greeks returned to power.
Consequences of the Fourth Crusade
Constantinople, after the Fourth Crusade, declined in strength and could no longer cope
with the barbarians menacing it. Two centuries later the city fell an easy victim to the
Turks. The responsibility for the disaster which gave the Turks a foothold in Europe
rests on the heads of the Venetians and the French nobles. Their greed and lust for
power turned the Fourth Crusade into a political adventure.