Crusader states
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The Crusader states were the feudal-type territories created by catholic Western Europeans who arrived in the (othodox/muslim) Eastern Mediterranean during the Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries.
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The Levant
The first four Crusader states were created in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade:
- The County of Edessa
- The Principality of Antioch
- The Kingdom of Jerusalem
- The County of Tripoli
The first Crusader state, the County of Edessa, was founded in 1098. The Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted until 1291, when the city of Acre fell. The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia existed prior to the Crusades, but became semi-westernized by the (French) Lusignan dynasty.
There were also many vassals of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the four major seigneuries being:
- The Principality of Galilee
- The County of Jaffa and Ascalon
- The Lordship of Oultrejordain
- The Lordship of Sidon
Cyprus
During the Third Crusade, Crusaders founded the Kingdom of Cyprus. Richard I of England conquered Cyprus on the way to Holy Land, and the island came to be ruled by descendants of the displaced kings of Jerusalem until 1489.
Greece
During the Fourth Crusade, the Byzantine Empire was conquered and divided into four states:
- The Latin Empire, in Consantinople (sacked shamelessly), forcing the 'Greek' Byzantine emperor to reside in Nicaea
- The Kingdom of Thessalonica
- The Duchy of Athens (Catalans)
- The Principality of Achaea
- The Venetians also created the Duchy of the Archipelago (also known as the Duchy of Naxos) in the Aegean Sea in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. Thessalonica and the Latin Empire were reconquered by the Byzantines by 1261. Descendants of the Crusaders continued to rule in Athens and the Peloponnesus or Morea until the 15th century when the area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.
- The military order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John established itself on Rhodes (and several other Aegean islands) in 1310, with regular influx of new blood, until the Ottomans finally drove them out (to Malta) in 1522.
Prussia
During the Northern Crusades, a Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights was founded in Prussia to combat pagan tribes.
Israel
Israel is sometimes described as a Crusader state, usually by those opposed to its existence and/or policies. Objective scholars usually do not refer to it as such. See also Tenth Crusade.de:Kreuzfahrerstaaten fr:États latins d'Orient nl:Kruisvaarderstaten no:Korsfarerstat sk:Križiacke štáty