Fourth+Crusade

== =Fourth Crusade (1202 - 1261)=

Innocent III sought once more to unite the forces of Christendom against Islam. No emperor or king answered his summons but a number of knights took the crusader's vow. The crusaders of the fourth expedition captured Contantinople instead of Jerusalem.

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.

In 1204 the Crusaders and Venetians attacked Constantinople and sacked the city. A lot of the islands which had belonged to the Empire were taken over by the Venetians too. The Crusaders never did go on to Jerusalem, and never fought the [|Ayyubids] at all. They took the piles of [|money] and jewels and [|gold] that they had captured in the sack of Constantinople and they went home. The Pope agreed to let them back into the Church.

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=Refrences=

http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/the-fourth-crusade.htm

http://dmbinns.com/fourthcrusade2_files/FourthCrusadeRouteMap.gif

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