Communication Challenges in the Crusade Period: A Survey

Considering communication as an analytical category provides new insights into crusading history. This paper investigates two main aspects, namely, (1) Papal propaganda campaigns, and (2) the communication challenges inherent in the development of the crusades and the Latin East. Both fields combined offer additional perspectives of the crusades while hinting at a twofold failure: vis-à-vis the European audiences, who throughout the thirteenth century were no longer receptive to the traditional papal message. Second, the almost complete lack of communication initiatives that could have facilitated a more fluent interchange across the Mediterranean and perhaps also retard if not obstruct the collapse of the Latin settlements Outremer. From a communication perspective, therefore, the papal policy encapsulated not only a propaganda fiasco but possibly also a communication blackout.