The Crusades were who?

Answer 1

The crusades were a holy war made by the christians and the Muslims who were fighting over Jerusalem

Answer 2

Crusaders were the people that joined the Crusades to the Holy Land of the middle ages. The Crusaders were a military force sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church in efforts to oust Muslims from the Holy Land and the Western World (Europe). They also sought to rid Europe, and the Roman Catholic Church, of ecclesiastical heretics. Their campaigns were held between 1095 and 1291.

The crusaders* were members of religiously orientated excursions towards other religious factions in the name of Christianity - jihad would be the Islamic equivalent (Though Muslims do not refer to the crusades as jihads!). Crusaders were predominantly French, as the French from Charlemagne onward were more politically influenced by the papacy. Of course, it's not fair to simply blame this as the sole justification for the French being the predominant body within the crusades but it seems to be a heavily contributing factor - along with a history or crusading that developed from their first inception by Urban II (a French pope) at the council of Clermont in 1095.

Other national groups such as the - what we would now know as - Germans were present during many of the crusades and England was also present on the third and continued to be an influence thereafter.

The crusading movement is difficult to categorize with an end date (as one has to consider what exactly one considers a crusade) but generally they're considered to have occurred between the 11th and 13th centuries. Various books are available on the matter, but here are a few of the authors you should look into for a good guide to the events:

Jonathan Riley-Smith

Andrew Jotischky

Jonathan Phillips

Geoffrey Hindley

Thomas Asbridge