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Why did the Fourth Crusade attack the Christian city of Zadar?

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Innocent III Innocent III, fresco in the Abbey of San Benedetto, Subiaco, Italy.

The Fourth Crusade attacked the Christian city of Zadar (then known as Zara) primarily due to severe financial difficulties faced by the crusading army.1

The crusaders had contracted with the Venetians to provide transport for their expedition to the Holy Land at a cost of 85,000 marks. However, when the army arrived in Venice in 1202, it was only one-third of its projected size, leaving the crusaders unable to pay the full amount they had promised.213

To resolve this debt, the Venetian Doge, Enrico Dandolo, proposed that the crusaders assist in capturing Zadar, a city that had rebelled against Venetian rule and placed itself under the protection of the King of Hungary. Although Pope Innocent III explicitly forbade the attack on the Christian city and threatened the participants with excommunication, the crusaders—fearing the abandonment of their mission and the loss of money already paid—acquiesced to the Venetian proposal to secure their transport.13