Failed Crusades

What would the effects be upon world history were the First Crusade to fail abysmally- i.e, get wiped out on route to the Holy Land. This can be in any manner, whether by starvation, or by ambush. What would the changes to Europe's developement be?

Does this delay the Renaissance?
 
There a list of the great and the good on the First Crusade? That'd be a good place to start when looking at what effects a disaster in the campaign would take place.
 
No Gothic architecture... and I love Gothic architecture (at least churches)
Scientific progress at least delayed - no contact with Islamic medicine and science, not to mention ancient Roman and Greek texts copied and/or translated by Islamic scholars.
Limited trade and travel, limited banking system, which was developed thanks to servicing pilgrims and crusaders (among other things).
And many knights remain in Europe, which was somewhat overcrowded: sons of many knights were impoverished, since their elder brothers would inherit family estate.
So yes, I think the Renaissance might be delayed - if it happens at all.
 
I assume that this could happen after the siege of Nicea by Alexius Comnenus. Then the crusaders are defeated in Asia Minor before they reach Antioch. An immediate effect would be that Turks continue to hold Antioch and the Byzantine reconquest of western Asia Minor is delayed and takes much longer. I don't rule out future expeditions to the east by sea instead of land.
 
No Gothic architecture... and I love Gothic architecture (at least churches)

Is this true? I didn't think Gothic architecture was dependent on anything learned in the Crusades. It grew out of the Romanesque. Anything the Europeans needed to learn from Muslims, they could have gotten from their conquests of Sicily and in Spain.

Scientific progress at least delayed - no contact with Islamic medicine and science, not to mention ancient Roman and Greek texts copied and/or translated by Islamic scholars.

This I disagree with. Christians had already been in contact with those texts through Spain for several centuries. They don't need the Crusades to be exposed to the Ancient Greeks. Much of the transmission of classical texts during the Middle Ages was when northern Europeans received it from Italy because of increased trade. Universities had already begun to spread and be established by the time of the First Crusade.

Limited trade and travel, limited banking system, which was developed thanks to servicing pilgrims and crusaders (among other things).

Somewhat. However, the European economy was already developing, and banks, trade, hospitals, and everything else was being done outside the Crusades. You have the various trade fairs, Italian merchant republics, pilgrimages to Rome, urbanization, etc. that are still all in place and will grow even without the Crusades.

And many knights remain in Europe, which was somewhat overcrowded: sons of many knights were impoverished, since their elder brothers would inherit family estate.

This is true, and without fighting somewhere else, those knights will fight among themselves. However, European knights have many, many other places to fight than Syria. You have the Baltic pagans, Muslim Spain, even Muslim Northwestern Africa, and even Byzantium to serve as an outlet for knightly conquest.

So yes, I think the Renaissance might be delayed - if it happens at all.

I don't think it will have much impact. The Renaissance was not dependent on Latin control of the Crusader states. An odd thing to say given that the Renaissance happened a century or more after the last Crusader state fell. All those Greek texts that started the Renaissance from the Byzantines directly, not Arab translation.

Furthermore, the Renaissance was mainly about rediscovering the humanities, culture, and arts of ancient Rome and Greece. It was during the previous Medieval Era that the scientific, mathematical, and philosophical texts were incorporated.

Certainly control of the Outremer brought Europe directly into the spice trade and introduced luxuries, but these are likely to begin happening already if the native Muslim powers remain in place.
 
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