The Fourth Crusade, a real high point in Western European History:They fell on [Constantinople] as s

The Fourth Crusade, a real high point in Western European History:They fell on [Constantinople] as savages might fall on a watch-giving the case to one, the jewels to another, and the disjointed mechanism to a third. The disjointed mechanism was the portion of the new emperor: five-eighths of Constantinople, Thrace, the north-west corner of Asia Minor and some islands of the Dodecanese fell to him. The chosen leader of the Crusade, Boniface of Montferrat, took Salonika and its adjacent territory. Venice took the jewels-the remaining three-eighths of Constantinople and numerous islands and ports scattered between the Adriatic and the Sea of Marmora. The Crusaders were accustomed to the splitting up of fiefs and they adopted the plan of division as the only possible one under the circumstances. Fifty-seven years of miserable life were to teach them what it meant to hold the gateway to the western world, on which the ambitions of many nations converged.R.W. Southern. The Making of the Middle Ages -- source link

More pics about