The related online article is Shock: The First Crusade and the Conquest of Jerusalem Al Jazeera English 12/07/2016. It notes that the First Crusade succeeded in capturing Jerusalem:
In July 1099, and after three years of a long march, bloody battles, plagues and famines, the crusaders finally entered Jerusalem.
"They released the pent-up tensions of three years on the march and having finally achieved their spiritual goal. So really it's a situation where the crusaders wished to purify the city and take it back for themselves," says Jonathan Phillips, history professor at Royal Holloway, University of London.
According to Antoine Domit, they started "with an infamous massacre. They killed people in the streets, in their houses and in alleyways."
Venderburie explains that it was very difficult for the crusaders to distinguish between local Christian, Muslim, and Jewish population because they all looked the same to them, they all "looked like Arabs".
"The success of the First Crusade in conquering Jerusalem is important not only because it realised a European dream, but also because it punished the Muslims and Arabs for their divisions and infighting," says Abdu Qassem.
With the capture of Jerusalem, the First Crusade had achieved its objective. But this initial success would not last, it was to be merely a dramatic opening scene in a far longer struggle. And as the Muslim revival began, so the ground was laid for another two centuries of the Crusades.
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