The Crusades. what were they? i have all the informatio for you.

The Crusades were a series of several military campaigns, usually approved by the Papacy that took place during the 11th through 13th centuries. Originally, they were Roman Catholic actions to capture the Holy Land from the Muslims. Some were directed against other Christians, such as the Fourth Crusade against Constantinople.  In a broader sense, "crusade" can be used to identify any honorable war that is given a religious justification.  The beginning of the crusades lie in Western developments earlier in the Middle Ages, as well as the failing situation of the Byzantine Empire.  The collapse of the Carolingian empire in the later 9th century, combined with the relative stabilization of local European borders after the Christianization of the Vikings, Slavs and Magyars, meant that there was an entire class of warriors who now were only fighting among themselves and terrorizing the peasant population because they had nothing else to do. The Church tried to stop this violence with the Peace and Truce of God movements, forbidding violence against certain people at certain times of the year.  But, the trained and skillful warriors needed an outlet for their violence.  Alexius I, from the Byzantine Empire, was asking for help in stopping Muslim attacks.  The Reconquista in Spain at times occupied Spanish knights and some mercenaries from elsewhere in Europe in the fight against the Islamic Moors, was another problem.   In 1063, Pope Alexander II had given papal blessing to Spanish Christians in their wars against the Muslims, which granted both a papal standard (the vexillum sancti Petri) and an indulgence to those who were killed in battle.  But a turning point in western thoughts towards the east became present when the al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the Fatimid caliph of Cairo, in 1009, had the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem destroyed.  The Fatimid caliph of Cairo’s, successor allowed the Byzantine Empire to rebuild it again under very strict conditions, and the pilgrimage was again allowed.  Many more stories began in the West about the Muslims and how cruel they were towards the Christian pilgrims and the rumors played an important role in the growth of the Crusades in later times.