Crusades

The Crusades were a series of military expeditions, launched in Europe and generally sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, that sought to regain control of Jerusalem and the Christian Holy Land from the followers of Islam. The Crusades were conducted primarily from the 11th through the 13th century, although minor Crusades took place for another 200 years. Eight major official Crusades occurred between 1095 and 1270. The Crusades met with only limited and temporal success, eventually leaving a legacy of bitterness and mistrust between two of the world’s great religions.