4th Crusade Essay

To look at the degree of which the Crusades where a pursuit of power rather than an operation in righteous conviction ,we have to look at the underlying causes of the 4th crusade and power struggles going on amongst different religious factions and the feudal systems of the time. There is an initial religious component that leads to the calling of the crusade based on religious ideology to right the wrongs of the previous crusades and restore Jerusalem to the Roman Catholic Church. This tries to permeate throughout the crusade but is overshadowed by events that occur at the time. Over time this sense of belief falls to feudal loyalties based on past events in the region, because of the need prop up the failing crusade. Then finally the

It is at this stage that the momentum of the true meaning behind the 4th Crusade begins to turn, finance must be found for the ships to carry them to Egypt. Meanwhile the Crusaders have overestimated their expected numbers and initiated a treaty with Venice for transport to the Holy Land, which would prove to be disastrous. Venice is for all purposes still part of the Byzantine Empire and as such has different religious loyalties to the Crusaders, which will turn the course of the

The Doge of Venice Enrico Dandolo now proposed a deal with the crusaders to take the port city of Zara which previously belonged to Venice but had fallen into the hands of the Croatian’s and was controlled by King Emeric of Hungary, who had previously taken part in the crusades, this was problematic for both but less so for the Byzantine Venetians, it was a greater risk for the crusaders as it could mean excommunication, but they were now desperate, most but not all of the crusaders agreed.(Rietbergen