Dr. Strangemonkey
First Post
med stud said:Europe was disorganized at the time and the Crusades had deprived the Arabs of many trading cities and wars are very expensive to wage no matter what.
Opportunity was probably not the only part of the conquest but I think it did a lot for the explosive growth of the Mongol empire.
I'm not certain what you mean by disorganized. Western Europe was having troubles, but Eastern Europe was in great shape with a series of strong kings and developing nation states. The Hungary and Poland of the time were not powers to disdain.
The loss of trading cities was probably mitigated by the fact that the trading cities were primarilly important because of their ability to trade through them to the west, which the Italians and Byzantines controlled regardless. If anything the crusades encouraged trade, certainly the crusaders made convenient negotiators and brokers.
There is an alternative history theory where the Crusaders realize what's happening quickly enough to make an alliance with the Mongols which would have served both powers nicely as it did in the Crimea, but the Crusaders were in the process of a failing bid at revival at the time and I'm not even certain that intelligence of the Crimean contacts and alliances various Italian states had with the Mongols had even made its way down to the Crusaders before they got pushed out.