2006-10-31 11:58:40 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
That's a hard question to answer definitively simply because there were so many of them and they occurred over such a long period.
Originally the purpose of the crusades was to take over Jerusalem in the name of Christianity. This first crusade actually succeeded in doing so... the entire population of Jerusalem was massacred and a new country, 'The Kingdom of Jerusalem' was established.
Later crusades sought to regain other lands the Christians thought they had a right to, and by the dozenth crusade or so they started to lose their focus - being waged often for political or economic reasons instead of religious ones.
While the crusades sparked stories of heroism, it also sparked stories of atrocity. Lines of support were often broken, so troops were often instructed to 'live off the land'... which for knights in armour usually meant just taking what they wanted from the local populace. One famous quote from the crusades has the crusaders asking those in charge how they should tell sinners from the just on the field of battle - the response was, "Kill them all. God will know his own."
Ultimately the Kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed about two hundred years later, around the same time that the crusades as a whole were slowing down. As you can imagine, there was far less excitement and support after two hundred years of sundry and unfocused wars than there was in the beginning.
2006-10-31 12:16:56 · answer #1 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They were wars by Christian armies against Muslim armies for the control of the Holy Lands.
Atrocities were, unfortunately, common on BOTH sides.
2006-10-31 20:04:21 · answer #2 · answered by ckm1956 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They were the people who were
Knights in shining Armour
They fought for the European countries against the Turkish.
The kinght were christian and the Turkish were Islamic
2006-10-31 20:10:26 · answer #3 · answered by Wicked 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋