The+Crusades+-+4th+Crusade

____ Crusade is a series of wars from the 1000s through 1200s in which European Christians tried to win control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Christians believed that Holy Land, which included Jerusalem and other places, was where Jesus lived and preached.



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 After the Third Crusade had failed in the attempt to regain Jerusalem, Innocent III was elected as the new Pope. Pope Innocent III revived the plans of Pope Urban II, who helped the Byzantine emperor Alexius to fight the Muslim Turks. He was determined to gather an army in order for the Fourth Crusade to proceed. Pope Innocent wrote letters to archbishops, bishops, counts, barons, and cities. In his letters, he requested that they send a troop of men to fight for the Fourth Crusade. Pope Innocent was willing to even accept money from groups who couldn’t send men instead. His plan was to assemble the army in Venice, and to set sail from Venice to attack Egypt. However, Venice wasn’t willing to be generous. They still had billed the Crusader army for the ships, horses, and provisions they were providing. In the agreement, Venice was to be paid not just a large sum of money or marks but also half of the land that was conquered throughout or as a result of the Crusade. It is said that Venice overcharged the crusaders. The crusaders army was smaller than planned and in debt, unable to pay Venice for the fleets. Therefore, the great man, Enrico Dandolo offered the crusader army a deal. This deal that the crusader army was persuaded into taking helped the Venetians conquer the city of Zara. Zara was a Christian city on the coast of Dalmatia. The Venetians offered passage to Egypt to the Crusaders in exchange for this city.

Even after this accomplishment, the crusader army was unable to earn enough to fully repay their debt to Venice. The crusader army however was offered another deal but this time from the Byzantines. Alexius IV, wishing to put his father back into power, bribed the crusader army with ten thousand men along with two hundred thousand marks. This would not only repay the debt, but give them extra money and a bigger army. The crusader army, unaware of the Pope’s warning letter, agreed to help and took the deal.

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The Fourth Crusade lasted from 1202 to 1261. One of the first events is the attack of the crusaders and the venetians on Zara. Crusaders decided to attack Constantinople by passing through Egypt because Venetians agreed to help them to furnish necessary ships only on condition that the crusaders first seized Zara. Zara was naval and commercial rival of Venice. Crusaders captured Zara.

In April 1203, the army sailed to Constantinople and arrived in June 1203. Venetians helped by breaking the great chain that blocked the harbor and the army could attack from both land and sea. Meantime, Alexius made a large army to counter-attack against Franks but failed to make an attack because crusaders intended to drive out Emperor Alexius as a traitor.

Crusaders burned down Constantinople by burning great part of the city, slaughtering the inhabitants, destroying monuments, statues, paintings and manuscripts. Even though it was the richest city in Christendom, Constantinople was seized at last.