Crusades

The Crusades were a series of wars during the Middle Ages (from around 1095 A.D. to the 1300's A.D.) that started because some people wanted to take back control of a city called Jerusalem. Jerusalem was important to them because it was the place where their religion practiced and holy sites were located. During the Crusades, some people from Europe (the Crusaders) went to the Middle East to fight the Muslims who were living there in order to try and take control of the holy sites. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the Crusades, and many people were forced to leave their homes because of the war.