Three Civilizations, One Sea

CHAPTER 1 · THE WORLD OF 1095 · The Crusades, 1095–1291

Before there is a word for “crusade,” look at the map. Three civilizations press around one sea. Latin Christendom (blue) is a patchwork of feudal kingdoms, technically obedient to a reforming papacy. Byzantium (tan) is an ancient Christian empire — but a shrunken one: at Manzikert in 1071 the Seljuk Turks destroyed its army and captured its emperor, and within twenty years Turkish emirs ruled Anatolia almost to the Aegean. Watch the dashed Anatolian front hugging the coast: that thin margin is all the empire has left of Asia.

The turn: Clermont, 27 November 1095.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.