The failures of the crusades

"The term crusades can be used to refer to any military operations launched during the middle ages by the Catholic Church and Catholic political leaders against non-Catholic powers or heretical movements. Most crusades, however, were directed at Muslim states in the Middle East, with the first starting in 1096 and the last in 1270. The term itself is derived from the Latin cruciata, which means 'cross-marked,' i.e. cruce signati, those who wear the insignia of scarlet crosses." (source)

"The crusades, as you well know, ended up in abject failure, a decisive defeat in karney Hittim 1187. the only crusade the West has enbarked on since 1972 when 11 Jewish athletes were murdered in Munchen is the crusade to minimise the strength of the jewish nation, and to augment the demands of the Islamists to abolish the Jewish nation." (source)

"The First Crusade had succeeded in achieving its objectives and it bad been possible to found Latin states in the East largely because the Moslems had been divided against one another and had thus been almost completely unable to cooperate effectively to stave off their Western foes. The end of the Second Crusade saw the Moslems preparing to unite, for the first time, against the Latin intruders in their midst, while the Latins, for their part, were divided sharply against one another. " (source)

"At the height of the fighting, the citizens, amazed at the number and the valour of our army, began to lose faith in their own power to resist. They barricaded with huge beams all the suburbs of the city in the area where our men were encamped, their only hope being that while the Christians were engaged in breaking down these barriers, they themselves would be able to flee with their wives and children through the opposite area of the city. It seemed reasonable to suppose that the Christian people would soon hold the city, had divine favour been with us. But He who is terrible in his plans for the sons of men had decided otherwise. For while the citizens had packed their bags and decided to leave the place, they began to presume on our cupidity and came up with the intention of storming with money the souls of those whose bodies they could not overcome by fighting. They used various arguments, even bringing a countless quantity of money, to persuade some of our leaders to play the part of the traitor Judas." (source)

"The Crusades had far-reaching political, economic, and social impacts, some of which have lasted into contemporary times. Because of internal conflicts among Christian kingdoms and political powers, some of the crusade expeditions were diverted from their original aim, such as the Fourth Crusade, which resulted in the sack of Christian Constantinople and the partition of the Byzantine Empire between Venice and the Crusaders. The Sixth Crusade was the first crusade to set sail without the official blessing of the Pope. The Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Crusades resulted in Mamluk and Hafsid victories, as the Ninth Crusade marked the end of the Crusades in the Middle East." (source)

"Richard Lion Heart is often depicted as the iconic representative of the Medieval Crusade, the Crusaders themselves, and of Chivalry, and not without some good cause. But many who portray Richard in heroic ways also portray the Crusades themselves in an overly positive light." (source)

"The crusading movement came to an end by the close of the thirteenth century. The emperor Frederick II for a short time recovered Jerusalem by a treaty, but in 1244 A.D. the Holy City became again a possession of the Moslems. They have never since relinquished it. Acre, the last Christian post in Syria, fell in 1291 A.D., and with this event the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem ceased to exist. The Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John, still kept possession of the important islands of Cyprus and Rhodes, which long served as a barrier to Moslem expansion over the Mediterranean." (source)