Venice

>Venice
What the fuck was their problem?

Slimy Slavic rape babies not living up to their promises

Nighty night, Byzantines

Why did the Crusaders attack a Christian city?

do you mean because they fled constantinople during the siege instead of staying to defend?

>orthodox
>christian

Pick one.

>we're gonna pay you
>oh not with our money mind you, just take whatever you want from this city

A byzantine exiled monarch/pretender asked the crusaders to help him. They did so, and with success. The sack happened when said byzantine ruler was murdered by his courtesans while the crusaders were still in the city.

money.

Venice built around 500 ships to sail the crusaders to the Holy Land but knew no one could afford this. So Venice cut a deal with the crusaders that if they captured the CHRISTIAN city of Zara, their debt was paid.

After the Crusaders failed to take Zara they were still broke and indebted, so they went on to Constantinople, where Alexius III promised payment to the crusaders, but was deposed by Alexios V before the Crusaders ever received their payment, and the new emperor said the deal was off. Prompting the Crusaders to respond by killing people and taking everything in the city that wasn't nailed down.

tl:dr it was just one big fuck up from start to finish because money.

That's not how it went you fool. Usurper promises money but then he got displaced quickly and the Byzzies then told the crusaders to fuck off.

>The city of Constantinople
>20 ships

Just fyi, that's not Dandolo.

>kill Latins
>don't help out in the Crusades
>actually help the Muslims during the crusades
>give the Vicar of Christ the middle finger
>let priests get married
>can't pay a fucking dime to a city-state
What the hell is wrong with Byzantium?

Well they usually relied on Venice as their navy. And their treasury. And their trade. And their political mediation with the west. And basically almost fucking everything. Which is why it was royally or rather imperially stupid of them to piss them off so much through the whole 12th century.

Byzantines and crusaders didn't like each other very much. Crusaders didn't like Byzantine decadence and their tendency to make deals with muslim states. Byzantines didn't like Crusaders for their lack of sophistication and tendency to loot Byzantine cities on the way to the holy land.

Maybe they shouldn't have been dealing with muslims?

Maybe you should check their fucking location on map and guess:
>How are you going to afford armies to keep filthy Turkics/Slavs/Normans at bay
>Where does the wealth from trade come from
>Why it isn't Western Europe

Byzantines thought they could convert the Turks to Orthodox Christianity like they did to the Slavs up North, so they tried playing softball with them at first. They would also occasionally try allying with Muslim factions to fight other muslims.
Crusaders saw this as working with the enemy

>Crusaders saw this as working with the enemy
Because it is. They're still allying themselves with Muslims to actively stop Crusaders from taking the Holy Land

>so quickly he forgets the Massacre of the Latins
Anyway you should be thankful. Those precious Roman horse sculptures would've been long melted into some legs for an Ottoman ottoman if not for the Venetians rescuing them.

>Massacre of the Latins
The Roman Catholics of Constantinople at that time dominated the city's maritime trade and financial sector. Although precise numbers are unavailable, the bulk of the Latin community, estimated at 60,000 at the time by Eustathius of Thessalonica, was wiped out or forced to flee. The Genoese and Pisan communities especially were decimated, and some 4,000 survivors were sold as slaves to the (Turkish) Sultanate of Rum.

>>some 4,000 survivors were sold as slaves to the (Turkish) Sultanate of Rum.

They pretty much asked for what happened with the third crusade, the Venetians just made money off it. Byzantium for worst state

Priests could get married in the Catholic church at that time too user

Banned a century prior actually.