Second Crusade Failure

By the end of the First Crusade, Pope Urban’s dream had come true; the Holy Land had been reclaimed from the Turks. Following their success, majority of those that fought went back home to Western Europe. Those that stayed settled in different areas and created four primary regions: Antioch, Edessa, Tripoli, and Jerusalem. Their goal was to maintain order within the region. Due to Christians being the overwhelming minority, the Crusader states operated similar to that of the Arab states under a dhimmi system; Muslims were free to practice their faith and everyone lived relatively prosperous lives in the Crusader states. As the weakest of the four regions, Edessa was eventually captured by the Turks. A Second Crusade began in order to reclaim Edessa. By the end of the campaign however, Edessa had not been reclaimed and the crusade was an overall disaster. The Second Crusade failed because the crusaders lost significant portions of their army, failed to reclaim Edessa, and as a result their enemies became stronger.
Imad ad-Din Zengi, a Turkish warlord, seized Edessa in 1144. Zengi’s …show more content…
The bulk of the army was ordered to make the trip to Antioch by foot, which led to the majority of the French army being massacred by Turks as the made their way to Antioch. Only a handful of soldiers made it to Antioch to reunite with King Louis. Before the crusaders even made it to Edessa, the majority of their army had been wiped out. To make matters worse, Nur ed-Din (son of Zengi) ordered the massacre of all of the Christians living in Edessa; the army had arrived outmatched and too late. Because of this, the crusaders realized that Edessa had been lost and that there was no point to try and reclaim it; this is the second and most important reason why the crusades failed. The whole reason they embarked on this pilgrimage was to reclaim Edessa, which they were not able to