The Nine Crusades and the Reasons for their Failure
Let’s have a look at why the Crusaders failed to establish themselves in the Holy land.
The Crusades are often viewed as a big failure. You probably wonder why the crusades could not establish a permanent Christian state in the Holy Land. The standard response would be that nothing endures forever. However, it is still remarkable that the Levant’s Christian state lasted such an extraordinarily long time.
The First Crusade
The first crusade was called by the ruler of Constantinople, whose walls were threatened by Muslim horsemen. The Byzantine Empire was on its way down. It had just lost most of Anatolia, and it looked like the tide would wash them away. They called for help from “fellow Christians” in the west, even though they had just gone through a big split. They wanted them to come to help them stop the Muslim expansion. It was never about the Holy Land for them.
France sent the most people to the first crusade. Can you even think of that? The Caliphate is four times the size of France and has four times as many people. They were about to win the war against Byzance. There was trouble at home. They had the help of a culture a hundred years ahead of France.
