Asia Minor and the Crusader states, c. 1140

The Crusader States were the territories created by Western Europeans who arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries.

The first four Crusader states were:

• The County of Edessa
• The Principality of Antioch
• The Kingdom of Jerusalem
• The County of Tripoli

These four were created during and immediately after the First Crusade. The first Crusader State, the County of Edessa, was founded in 1098. The Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted until 1291, when the city of Acre fell. There were also a number of vassal states of Jerusalem.

During the Third Crusade, the Crusaders founded:

• The Kingdom of Cyprus

Richard I of England conquered the island on the way to the Holy Land, and it came to be ruled by descendants of the displaced kings of Jerusalem until 1489.

In the Fourth Crusade, the Byzantine Empire was conquered and divided into four states:

• The Empire of Romania (the Latin Empire)
• The Kingdom of Thessalonica
• The Duchy of Athens
• The Principality of Achaea

The Venetians also created the Duchy of the Archipelago in the Aegean Sea in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade.

Thessalonica and the Latin Empire were reconquered by the Byzantines by 1261. Descendants of Crusaders continued to rule in Athens and the Peloponnesus or Morea until the mid-15th century.

Israel is sometimes compared to a Crusader state, usually by those opposed to its existence and/or policies. Objective scholars usually do not call it one. See also Tenth Crusade.

Please see the articles on the individual states for more information.

fr:États latins d'Orient