Why were the Crusaders so successful?

Before Jerusalem fell, something else collapsed first.

The First Crusade wasn’t won because the Crusaders were stronger or more numerous. It succeeded through discipline, organization, and psychological warfare—while the Muslim world was divided by rival rulers, short-term thinking, and emotional reactions without strategy.

This episode traces that collapse from Europe’s mobilization to Antioch, Ma‘arra, and the fall of Jerusalem in 1099.

More importantly, it asks the uncomfortable question history leaves behind:
why did sincere people keep losing?