The Crusades

The Crusades were a holy war fought by the Muslims and the Christians. The wars started because the Muslim Turks would not let the Christians into the Holy Land. The Crusades consisted of 4 main Crusades and a few others.

First Crusade

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The First crusade consisted of about 5,000 Crusaders and most of them were peasants. Being peasants, they were poorly armed and most were killed by Turkish troops on the way to Jerusalem. When the remaining Crusaders reach Jerusalem they found the Turks disorganized and unready to fight well. In a short time the Crusaders had control of Jerusalem and had set up kingdoms around it. The Christian rule did not last long in Jerusalem. After about 50 years the Turks started taking land back. This angered the Christians, so they lauched more Crusades.     


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Second and Third Crusades

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The second Crusade was very short. The poor planning and heavy loses on the way to Jerusalem, made the second Crusade a great failure. The Second Crusade ended less than a year after it started. The Third Crusade was not as bad. The German, French, and English Kings all set out on a crusade. Unfortunately the crusaders hit a snag. The German King died and the French King left, leaving only King Richard of England. King Richard captured a few towns and won protection for the Christian pilgrims, but when he left Jerusalem was still under Muslim control.

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Fourth Crusade

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In the Forth Crusade, French knights left Venice to start the Forth Crusade. Unfortunately for them they did not have the money to pay for the trip. Instead of money the inhabitants of Venice asked that the knights capture a rival trade city named Zara. The knights agreed and also plundered Constantinople, the city that was threatened by Muslims before the Crusades. 

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End of Crusades

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A few more Crusades followed, but none were successful. By 1296, 195 years after the First Crusade started, the Muslim forces had control over all of the Holy Land and no more Crusades were attempted. After all of the fighting the Holy Land was under Muslim control once again.




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