2007-03-25 13:13:50 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Bitter animosity between the Roman Catholic West and the Orthodox Christian Byzantines, and because the Venetians put them up to it in order to knock the Byzantines out as effective competitors in trade, and to pay the Byzantines back for excluding the Venetians from several lucrative ports. The death toll was horrific, and huge amounts of art and priceless literature (dating back to ancient Greece and Rome was destroyed). Many of the decorations around Venice were in fact plundered from Constantinople, including the horses at St Mark's square.
All of the Crusades had an uneasy relationship with the Byzantines who were, in their view, heretical Christians. The Byzantines for their part regarded most of the Crusaders as self serving, reckless, and little more than barbarians in their manners and attitudes.
2007-03-25 13:29:02 · answer #1 · answered by nandadevi9 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The crusaders did not loot Constantinople. Except for the Venetians carrying off the lions. The crusaders had an interest in keeping Constantinople intact. First off, the "Franks" got to elect the new "Latin Emperor of Romania." Under him, they parceled out Greece to crusading lords under the titles of Princes of Achaia and Dukes of Athens and Thebes. They adopted feudalism according to the Assizes of Jerusalem, under which the Kingdom of Jerusalem had been set up after the First Crusade in 1100. Some crusaders had been alotted fiefs in what is now Turkey, (Boniface of Montfarrat), but they were unable to claim their lands LOL.
P.S.: The Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople in 1204. Michael Paleologus, a general of the Empire of Nicea, recaptured the city for the Byzantine Empre in 1261. He usurped the throne as Michael VIII. The last Emperor of Byzantium was Constantine XI Paleologus, who died in the last assault on the city by the Turks in 1453.
2007-03-25 21:43:35 · answer #2 · answered by steve_geo1 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Crusades were only superficially about religion and the hold land. They were mostly about greed, reward, and revenge. The "crusaders" destroyed 2 Christian kingdoms in the 4th crusade, one being the eastern Roman empire.
2007-03-25 21:35:12 · answer #3 · answered by Fred 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why? Why? Wouldn't you? It was the biggest heist in history!
It may have been in their long term interest not to, but who could follow long term interests at such a time? In any case, the Greeks had proved themselves treacherous.
2007-03-26 11:55:31 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because they were so mad. They were looking for Istanbul and couldn't find it.
2007-03-25 20:22:24 · answer #5 · answered by skwonripken 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋