I was researching the about the technology advancements during the crusades and I got to this article: http://ina.tamu.edu/yasymposium/PDFs/Pryor.pdf. It highlights how the ships got better during the crusades. During the first crusade, it took two seasons for the large fleets to travel from Europe to the Holy lands. Plus they were not equipped with provisions to carry horses. According to the Article, crusaders did not bring horses till the Venetians brought around only 300 in 1123. But right after the First Crusade the Crusades were able to travel to the Holy lands in 3-4 weeks. For the Fourth Crusade, Venetians had made specialized galleys to carry over 4500 horses and knights. Now the interesting part is that the article argues that there is no evidence to show that there was a revolution in ship design but yet they could carry more and travel faster. The article suggests that this might have been due to better port facilities, better knowledge of the routes. But the evidence to suggest all this is very minimal but there is no doubting that there was a fundamental change in the ships.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm just shooting in the dark here, but maybe the whole process of shipping off to the Holy Land became more familiar with time, and because of that, the process became more efficient and faster. Also, perhaps the original Crusaders didn't bring horses along in their ships because they didn't think it was possible and so didn't even consider the idea... once someone tried it and was successful, others began considering/focusing on the idea and, as a result, Europe became more adept at it.
ReplyDelete