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The fourth Crusade: A wrong turn

The fourth crusade started as yet another attempt by the pope to bring the fight tothe Forces of Islam. This particular pope, Pope innocent the III, was infused the

ambitions of Urban the II, that is, the wish for all of Europe to be united under faith and

the papal banner, and against the Moslem states. Unfortunately, the great powers, thenations and kings of Christian Europe, were tired of loosing huge amounts of resources,

man power, and all-important prestige by marching in the hot desert, where they would

be outnumbered and doomed to slow loss due to guerilla warfare and lack of supply.Now, these good reasons for not invading the holy land may have been enough for the

kings of Europe, but many of the haughty, supremely ambitious, and self righteous

warrior nobles of Europe, mostly French, answered the call, taking the crusaders oath. So,

having vowed to take the holy land from Egypt, especially Jerusalem, the crusadersdecided that it would be best to attack by sea, the problem was, since they were a large

collection of lords, mercenaries, and their feudal subjects, not a legitimate national army,

they had no fleet. So, not having a fleet, but still not wishing to march across the desert as

long as not having a fleet would necessitate, decided to get one from Venice, a rathergreedy Italian Mercantile state, and one with a rather substantial Navy. They agreed to

give the crusaders transportation if they agreed to storming Zara, a Christian city on theeastern coast of the Adriatic, whos only crime was being a notable trade competitor of

Venice, and despite the poor popes protests, the nobles, keen to make a profitable side

trip, capitulated, and took Zara, slaughtering its Christian inhabitants, all the while flyingthe banner of the crusades. Now, the nobles, according to their plan, their deal with the

venations, and the crusaders oath, should have gone on to the Holy lands after that.

Unfortunately, that did not happen, due to the fact that during the sack of Zara, the

crusaders had realized something; that they could satisfy their lust for land, loot, andmartial glory without having to fight a guerilla war against long odds in a Dry, Hot

desert, by simply attacking the next target the venations had set out for them:Constantinople. Constantinople was a huge trading city, and with her gone as a power,the venations stood to gain a huge amount of power and profit by filling the gap they

would surely leave. Now, of course there were some petty reasons for not attacking the

city. Like Constantinople being a beautiful, Christian city, haven of the arts, a queen ofcities whos walls had defended Christendom from eastern invaders, when none else

could, for many centuries. After a short, brutal battle for the city, it was sacked, its people

slaughtered, and its power broken, never to heal again, never again to be able to defend

itself and Christendom against he Moslem armies, and all because of a bunch of greedy,ambitious, ruthlessly violent warriors who called themselves crusaders. When that

happened, the crusaders not only destroyed a Christian power in the east; they also set up

a new stereo-type for all who wish to defend the Christian, faith, a stereo type that to thisday is used to curse the Christian church.

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