Start of the Fourth Crusade?

Pope Innocent III was elected in 1198 and the first thing he did was call for a crusade. It took awhile to organize in France before they left; they sacked their first city in 1202. Zadar in Croatia. The Ottomon empire invaded Europe sometime before, but was repelled in what became modern day Yugoslavia (Croatia, Dalmatia, Serbia etc.). The conflict between Serbians and ethnic Albanians is one between Muslims and Christians. Their fight has been going on for nearly a thousand years and since the crusades.

I'm not sure when they actually left France, but the seige of Zadar (Zara) didn't last very long. The crusaders needed ships to get to the holy land, as the walk was pretty far. The Venitians agreed to help but only after they sacked Zadar. They left on 8 October, 1202. They retook Constantinople from the Ottomons on 12 April, 1204.

Maybe someday when I have more time, I'll update the wikipedia article.

1198 is the year Pope Innocent III commenced a call for the Fourth Crusade, which was originally slated to be directed against Egypt and eventually Jerusalem. However, funding issues delayed the attack several years and eventually even the target was changed to Constantinople.

According to Wikipedia, the fighting in Constantinople lasted from June 1203 - April 1204.

1198 ad - 1202