Posted 1:29 AM by Steve
Reading Thomas Madden's "A Concise History of the Crusades", one gets a sense that the fact that our western/Judeo-Christian way of life survived by a string of nearly miraculous events.

We not only survived, but the end result of our western/Judeo-Christian values (i.e., respect for human rights and the free and democratic way of life much of the world enjoys) has done more good than any other force in the history of mankind.

It's amazing how successful some of the early crusades were and I find myself wondering how the world would be different if the Europeans had committed to maintaining the Latin kingdoms in the Holy Land. How would the world be different if the Byzantine empire had united with Rome in it's quest to eradicate any Muslim presence in the Levant?

Europe's squabbling and inconsistent resolve first gave hope to the Muslim forces which successfully expelled any effective crusaders from the region. Then after re-establishing a presence in the Holy Land, the Egyptian forces were able to keep the crusaders at bay. Then the mighty Ottoman Empire of the Turks not only put the smack down on any European crusading forces, but also made serious inroads into the continent of Europe with little effective resistance. If not for the death of their leader, who knows how far they might have gotten?

Another unforeseen occurence during the Crusades was the effect of the Mongol expansion and the Europe's attempts to unite with Ghengis Khan to defeat Islam. The pope's correspondence with Khan shows the depths of cultural divide. When asked why he destroys Christian kingdoms and cities as well as Muslim, Ghengis Khan simply doesn't understand the question... his answer is "because they are weaker of course"...

Fascinating stuff.