Crusader states

Okay kiddo, so do you remember hearing about knights and castles and battles a long long time ago? Well during a time called the Middle Ages, there were wars between different groups of people who believed in different religions. One group was called the Christians and the other was called the Muslims.

Now, during these wars, the Christians wanted to take back a city called Jerusalem that they believed was very important to their religion. They fought really hard and took over Jerusalem, but then they needed to protect it from the Muslim armies.

So what they did was they set up four different small "countries" called crusader states. These were like mini-kingdoms ruled by Christian knights who had fought in the wars to win back Jerusalem. They had their own rulers, armies, and even their own languages!

These crusader states were called the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa. They were all located in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.

But, even though they tried really hard to defend their states and Jerusalem, the Muslim armies eventually got stronger and conquered all of the crusader states.

So, in short, crusader states were small Christian kingdoms set up to protect the city of Jerusalem during a time of religious wars!