Why did the Second Crusade Fail?

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Why did the Second Crusade Fail?

The Second Crusade was called on the 1st of December 1147 by Pope Eugenius III. Initially, it had been addressed to King Louis VII of France and his subjects. The main objective that had been announced was to reclaim Edessa as it was essential for the Franks to recapture this land. Unfortunately, the objective had not been achieved in the crusade; in fact the goal to recapture Edessa was a complete failure. However, although Edessa was the main objective of the Second Crusade, during the course of the crusade the Christians set their sights on Damascus, the Baltic and Iberia. These additional aims came about when they reached the Holy Land. Despite these new goals, the only true success of the Second Crusade was Iberia; all other aims failed (although the Baltic crusade was a success to a certain degree, but only for a short period). There were many factors that contributed to the failure of the Second Crusade, such as what had happened when they reached Edessa, Muslim unity, tactics at Damascus and Christian incompetence.

Edessa was the primary and most important part of why the crusade failed (as it was the main motivation of the crusade). This state was founded by Baldwin of Bologne, from the First Crusade, but it had fallen to the Muslims in 1144. Therefore this was made the main objective, and since the First Crusade was so successful, the crusaders were overly confident and optimistic about the Second Crusade. Although this crusade was called in 1145 they had failed to reach the Middle East until 1147, (in which) some crusaders were ambushed by the Muslims. The crusaders then fought their way across Anatolia and onwards to Antioch. They had taken a massive blow of attacks and suffered a shortage of men; still, they were set on marching to Edessa from Antioch which took place on March 19th 1148. However, to the crusaders’ dismay, the city of Edessa laid in a ruined state, which had been caused by a Muslim attack in 1146. This meant that the crusaders no longer had something of value to fight for, as they were much too late to save the city of Edessa. This caused the crusaders to switch to another objective and abandon Edessa, leaving it in the hands of the Muslims. The crusaders decided to capture Damascus instead, which defeats the “reclaiming Edessa” goal completely. Thus, this can be called the Second Crusade’s main failure.

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Now the question ‘was the aim to recapture Damascus instead worth all the effort?’ arises. The answer is simple; it was certainly not. Damascus leads me on to the next point of failure of the Second Crusade. Damascus was a great city which radiated the blossoming Arab race. It had been such a city that it motivated the crusaders through greed, which was most probably why the crusaders could not achieve the capture of such a city – because every crusader had their own goals in mind. This particular city had been too strong for the crusaders to take over, ...

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