The Crusades were a series of religious wars from the 1095 – 1492 between the Muslims

and Christians to reclaim the Holy Land, stop the expansion of Muslim states and to
recapture territories that had formerly been Christian. In total, there are nine crusades.

It started when Arab armies conquered two-thirds of the Christian regions, including the holy
land, Jerusalem. This caused conflicts between the two religions. However, when warriors
known as Seljuk Turks converted to Islam and defeated the Byzantine empire in the battle of
Manza, taking over Antonia (known as turkey today). Alexius I Comnenus, the Byzantine
Emperor requested military aid from Pope Urban II in Rome.

The pope responded by giving a speech at the Council of Clermont, calling on the knights of
Europe to fight in the war. Pope Urban II had declared that fighting in this war would be a
sacred act and remove all sins committed by the soldiers. This drove many to partake in the
war.

On August 15, 1096, the first official crusade was set up by the Pope. The outcome of this
Crusade was that they captured Antioch and Jerusalem, and established the Crusader
states (Where the people would fight)

The second Crusade took place from 1145 to 1148 and the mission was to recapture
Edessa, which had been captured by the Muslims while the Crusaders were busy
elsewhere. Edessa was one of the Crusader states, and it was important enough to want to
get back, However, the Christians completely failed in doing so.

In the third crusade, the objective was to regain Jerusalem back. However, in the end,
Jerusalem wasn't completely taken, it still had Muslim control, but Christians had free access
to it.

The final Crusade from 1198 to 1204 failed miserably. The general objective was to try to
attack the Muslim powers holding the Holy land, but they never even got there. The reason
was that they had no money or supplies.

In the end, the Muslims won power over the holy land. People also finally realized
maintaining any real presence in the Holy Land was near impossible, and they moved on to
other horizons.