The Crusades refer to the military campaigns of mostly religiously motivated Roman Catholic Christians between the 11th and 16th centuries BC, largely against Muslims. In 1095, Pope Urban launched the First Crusade with the goal of restoring Christian access to the Holy Land near Jerusalem (Essaycamp, n.d.). Six great crusades followed, plus numerous others, a struggle that lasted an intermittent period of 200 years. It ended with the Christians losing their last stronghold in the Holy Land at Acre, after which no more campaigns by Roman Catholic Europe occurred in the East (Wikipedia, n.d.). It can be said that the salvation of Christians was one of the reasons for the Crusades, thus strengthening the religious thesis. Pope Urban, a religious figure, calling for the First Crusade in 1095 shows that salvation may have been the main reason for the call. In the 9th and 10th centuries, Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem flourished (Trotter, 1987) and now that this was under threat, religious leaders felt the need to protect their followers. It has been documented that there was a general tendency among the Latin chroniclers to perceive the Muslim presence around Jerusalem as a violation of the Christian holy places, therefore they organized the crusades on religious grounds to purify the lands from contamination by the Muslims (Syracuse University Press, 2001, p. The crusades are also interpreted as exploitation by the leadership. The papacy realized that the votes of the crusade could be of useful gain. This was especially true since the Crusades forced knights to carry out their mandate against the perceived enemy (Trotter, 1987). Conflicts between the state and the church for control have intertwined the crusade...... center of paper......alebi, M., Yusoff, K., & Nor, M.R.M.,. (2012). The impact of Islamic civilization and culture in Europe during the Crusades. World Journal of Islamic History and Civilization, 2(3): 182-187.Crusades. (n.d.). On Wikipedia. Retrieved April 18, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades Crusades Essay. (n.d.). At Essaycamp. Retrieved April 18, 2014, from http://essaycamp.com/examples/the-crusades-essay Chazan, R., (1987). European Jews and the First Crusade“Gender Biases and Religious Intolerance in Accounts of the 'Massacres' of the First Crusade,”In Tolerance and Intolerance: Social Conflict in the Age of the Crusades, eds. M. Gervers and J. Powell (Syracuse University Press, 2001, p. 5). Hillenbrand, C. (2000). The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives Trotter, D. A. (1987). Medieval French literature and the Crusades (1100-1300)