crusadesbattles

The Crusade Battles -- 1096-1291  All in all, there were nine Crusade battles starting in 1096 and ending in 1291. While there were different leaders for each of the battles each had the same purpose -- taking back Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

First Crusade -- 1096
 For the first Crusade, two groups were sent out of Paris, where Pope Urban had gathered the groups together in the first place. The first group were peasants, none of which had any experience fighting. While they were only supposed to attack the Turkish Muslims, started taking down any non-Christians, including huge amounts of Jewish people as they traveled to Jerusalem. They did end up making it to Jerusalem, but were easily defeated by the Turkish Muslims.

 The second group were trained knights. Although they were trained, they didn't anticipate certain problems like food shortages and illness. In the end, it took them three years to get to Jerusalem. When they got there, they defeated the Turkish Muslim army (even though they were exhausted from traveling).

Second Crusade -- 1144
  The second Crusade was nowhere near as effective as the first. In 1144, the Muslims began to take back land that they had lost in the first Crusade. They captured the city of Edessa, and European leaders called for another Crusade. The Europeans began their Crusade in 1147, but ended up taking no lands from the Muslims and returned to Europe empty-handed.

==Third Crusade -- 1189 == **Click on the map to see the pat ****h that the Crusaders took on the third Crusade. Click on the box that says "Third Crusade" to see the path**

Fourth Crusade (and later) -- 1202
 **Click on the map to see the path the Crusaders took in the fourth Crusade. Click on the box that says "Fourth Crusade."**

 By this time, the Christian army was fairly broke. They had little money left, but they still needed to take Jerusalem since it was still under Muslim control. Unfortunately, they couldn't afford to pay the Venetians, who offered to take them to the Holy Land. Instead of paying them in cash, the Christian army paid them by attacking Zara, a port city that once belonged to Venice, but had been conquered by the Christian king in Hungary. This got them into trouble -- once the Pope found out that the Christian army attacked a Christian king's army, they were all excommunicated (or kicked out of the Christian church.

  Really, though, the Christian army didn't care much. They kept going to Jerusalem. On the way, the army stopped in Constantinople, a Christian city, and attacked the city and people. In the end, they again didn't take Jerusalem. Five other Crusades followed, but none of them were successful. By 1291, all of the Christians were kicked out of the Holy Land by the Muslims.