Crusades

The Crusades are a series or religious or “holy wars” created by the Pope and the Catholic church in an attempt to regain power, at least access to the holy land, most notably Jerusalem. Originally created in response to Muslim hold on what is to be considered the holy land, these armies considered of Roman Catholics from all over Western Europe. Although fighting for the same cause the armies were not led by any unifying command. The main series of the Crusades was fought between 1095 and 1291 CE. Although there were documented battles both before and after this time frame, this is generally when the ages of the crusades is thought to be commenced.

The term “Crusade” come from the French idiom “taking up the cross” (soldiers dawned the emblem of the cross on their shields during battle).

The term "crusade" is also used to describe religiously motivated campaigns conducted between 1100 and 1600 in territories outside the Levant   [5]  usually against pagans, heretics, and peoples under the ban of  excommunication   [6]  for a mixture of religious, economic, and political reasons. [7] Rivalries among both Christian and Muslim powers led also to alliances between religious factions against their opponents, such as the Christian alliance with the  Sultanate of Rûm  during the  Fifth Crusade.

The Crusades had major far-reaching political, economic, and social impacts on western Europe, including causing the downfall of the Christian Byzantine Empire.

The Reconquista , a long period of wars in Spain (  Iberia  ) where Christian forces reconquered the peninsula from Muslims, is closely tied to the Crusades.