Jumpin said:
Wow... Slap whoever taught you history in school. The crusades were NOT about defending Europe from Islamic conquest; quite the opposite. Following the late Viking Age, many militaristic Knight orders and Kings in Europe were making the Roman Catholic church nervous with their aggressive/tyrannical rule - they began spreading the idea of chivalry as one measure, the second was to send them on a crusade to capture the Holy Land, which is part of the core of the Caliphate - it was an aggressive war, not a defensive war. Later on, the crusades were expanded to powers by attacking and annihilating the various pagan cultures of North-Eastern Europe, invasion of the Byzantine Empire (which was Christian, but a different form than Roman Catholic), and attacking countries in Africa. Prior to the crusades, the Arabic nations and Christian nations had relative peace with one another. The Caliphate was multi-cultural allowing Jews and Christians to practice their faith within the nation; most of the Caliphate was Christian during this period, in fact, crusaders massacred non-Roman-Catholic Christians when they conquered Jerusalem. The Caliphate of Cordova which existed in Iberia was always Christian majority through its entire history. In actuality, if the Caliphate DID conquer all of Europe, the medieval era would have most been a happier, more prosperous, and healthier time period since Europe would have enjoyed the same freedoms, education, and trade enjoyed by Al Andalus. Al Andalus was undoubtedly a far better place to live than any of Roman Catholic Europe. |
My bet with The_Liquid_Laser: I think the Switch won't surpass the PS2 as the best selling system of all time. If it does, I'll play a game of a list that The_Liquid_Laser will provide, I will have to play it for 50 hours or complete it, whatever comes first.
