This series contains 12 animated historical maps. For a preview, please consult the map below:

A complex conflict rather than a clash of civilisations

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Crusades

Westminster Psalter, 13th century

Crusades

Pope Urban II’s call to free the Holy Places, issued during the Council of Clermont in 1095, spread rapidly throughout Western Christianity and was enthusiastically taken up by the feudal nobility.
At the end of the First Crusade, the Christian warriors captured Jerusalem and founded the crusader states in the Orient. Their early successes were achieved mostly because of the deep political, ethnic and religious divisions existing in the Near East at that time.
Over the following two centuries, eight other crusades were organized in order to defend the Latin Kingdom.


The Mediterranean on the eve of the First Crusade

The Mediterranean on the eve of the First Crusade


The First Crusade, from the Council of Clermont to Jerusalem

The First Crusade, from the Council of Clermont to Jerusalem


The foundation of the Crusader states

The foundation of the Crusader states


The Second Crusade

The Second Crusade


The Ayyubid Reconquest

The Ayyubid Reconquest


The Third Crusade

The Third Crusade


The Fourth Crusade

The Fourth Crusade


The Crusades to Egypt

The Crusades to Egypt


The Eighth and Ninth Crusades

The Eighth and Ninth Crusades


The Crusades and Mediterranean trade

The Crusades and Mediterranean trade


Jerusalem under the Franks

Jerusalem under the Franks