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A particularly thorough analysis will be made of the early establishment and growth of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Principality of Antioch and Counties of Tripoli and Edessa, considering the reasons of how those states were able to survive their earliest and often most difficult challenges. We will then go on to look at the growth of the various monarchies in those states, and look to reasons of why and how they managed to survive despite external pressure from neighbouring Muslim states, as well as the politics in which they became embroiled in order to prolong their existence. We will also devote time to the various changes and upheavals within the Muslim states of the Near East and Egypt, to consider how their evolving policies and development would impact on the destiny of a Christian Holy Land. Finally, we will look to the circumstances as to why the County of Odessa finally fell to conquest, and how that changed the balance of power in the region. We will then analyse the reasons and purposes of the Second Crusade, its overall course and the reasons for its ultimate failure, and its subsequent impact for the future of the remaining Christian states.