Battle for the Holy Land - The strategy of the Crusades

[dexter]

On a late November morning in the year 1095, the rousing sermon of Pope Urban II reverberated across Europe. Thousands of knights and ordinary people took the cross and marched East. Over the next two hundred years, the Christian armies attempted to recover Palestine from Islamic rule. But conquering these lands was easier than keeping them.
We look at the strategic methods employed by the Crusader states to keep hold of the Holy Land.

Conclusion:

• The Crusader States relied on Muslim disunity. Without it, the numerical inferiority was a big disadvantage.
• Battlefield victories were key for the success of the Crusaders - a risky venture without steady reinforcements.
• Crusader failure wasn't guaranteed but without a fundamental shift in their religious and ethnic orientation, the odds were always going to be stacked against them.