Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "Why did The Crusades Fail?" video.

  1. They failed LOGISTICALLY. The West did not use oceanic transit -- even though the West had a virtually a monopoly on ship-building -- because the Levant had long chopped down its forests. The Muslim powers usually had no naval assets of any kind -- or they were pathetic. The obvious play: establish naval support out of Southern France (Rhone) & Northern Italy (Poe) and just keep sailing to the Levant. The Muslims would never be able to do anything about such transits. Compared to the Atlantic, the Med is a mere lake. Yet, the Crusades were a series of Land Marches -- many of which never made it to the Levant. ( See Barbarossa ) BTW, horse armies need a lot of fodder. That's a Big Problem for Crusader Era combatants. Their primary tactical weapon is based on stallions. When they dismounted, they can only defend -- and only if in a fortress. As infantry, they were too heavy. So the Muslims could always flee to fight another day -- and more generally -- the Muslims could bring vastly more warriors to any stand-up battle. As for hit-and-run -- the Muslims had a monopoly on that. Indeed, hit-and-run is still working for Muslim combatants -- lawful and unlawful as they might be. [ Lawful combatant powers obey the Geneva Conventions. Unlawful combatants -- well, anything goes -- they are legally defined PIRATES. BTW, most piracy is land bound -- and actually has nothing to do with ships. Pirate = totally unlawful, totally amoral attacker.
    1