Hi there!

I'm the narrator, and I will be telling you the excitingly-horrific, marvelous but gruesome, heartbreaking but passionate story of...

THE CRUSADES!

A Long time ago. Probably before your great-great-great grandmother was alive, there was a major event called the Crusades.

Now, for those of you who don't know what the Crsuades are, here's some background information.

The Crusades was a big fight between Muslims and Christains for a city inside of Israel called Jerusalem.

This fight lasted for 100 years!

I wouldn't even hold a grudge for that long and I am very stubborn!

But, now lets get on with the story!

In the 500's and before the start of the crusades, the Byzantine Empire owned Jerusalem, the Holy Land. Since they were all Christains and served God, they made religious trips to Jerusalem called pilgrimages.

Little did the Byzantine Empire know that in the 600's they would get their land taken by the Muslim Arabs.

Many rulers to come still allowed Christains to make pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

You would think that this was a good enough compromise right?

If your answer was yes..

THEN YOU'RE WRONG!

In 1071, a brand-new group of Muslim rulers called the Seljuk Turks took over.

This group started to limit the amount of Chrstains that get to use their religious sites...

To make matters even worse, the Seljuk Turks started to take land from the Byzantine Empire!

So in 1095, Pope Urban of the Byzantine Emipre called a meeting saying that European Christains should all unite and take on the Muslims!

So,just in case you're a little slow, like me...

THIS was what started the Crusades.

From that, I can tell you that the Crusades were actually Christian military campaigns meant to put a STOP to the spread of Islamic power.

The very first Crusade began in 1096 and ended in 1099 when a Christian army(from the Byzantine Empire) attacked Jerusalem and won.

Afterward, most of the military went home but some others stayed and divided the conquered land up into four Christian states.

The next Crusade happened after the Muslim Turks captured one of the new christian states and threatened to take the others as well!

Crusade number two was led by the kings of both France and Germany. But sadly their Christian armies were defeated by the Mulsims before they even got there!