I COPIED THAT BELOW. Not the way I read it. THE CRUSADES came about because of 500 years of muslims, conquering Christian lands by force. Beheadings, crucifying people, pastors. Forcing people to become an Islamist. Now Joe, you are Native Indian, so you would be against any "European". Muslims were the INVADERS..it is what they do. Just like now.
In November 1095, at the Council of Clermont in southern France, the Pope called on Western Christians to take up arms to aid the Byzantines and recapture the Holy Land from Muslim control. This marked the beginning of the Crusades.Jun 7, 2010
Crusades - HISTORY
https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/crusades
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First, I'd like to note that before the European expansion during the 1400s and beyond, the Europeans were the invaders. Since then the same folks have been pretty much in control of who came and went. Still are. =SMOKIN JOE
If you are going to argue with me, ping me,
@LegalAmerican Let me disabuse you of a misconception. My wife is Chippewa, I am descended from early Maryland colonists, land grant in 1641. (I married a girl from an older family!)
So don't try to twist my worldview into one of having been invaded. My ancestors bought their land from two tribes (Nanticoke and Powhatan) who were warring over it, ending an intertribal war in the process of securing their ownership from all claimants, and thus entrenching the validity of the grant from the English Crown.
Europeans were not endemic to the far east, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, the Solomons, North, South America, nor any of Africa or most of the Middle East. They were, after all, from Europe.
From the Age of Discovery (1400s on), we've spread out, identified and exploited resources to keep the home countries, the seats of empire, going. Some of those former colonies won independence, others were granted it, and in the places where European culture dominated, it remains.
The crusades were over by 1300.
Fighting over someone else's turf (The Holy Land) is what the crusades were about, laid claim to by three religions, but especially contested between the Christians (Roman Catholics) and Muslims. At least one of my ancestors was wrapped up in that, likely a few. But despite the fight to secure the region
for the exploitation of pilgrims, >ahem< for the worship of the faithful and for the Pope, and to defeat the Saracen hordes which had occupied Europe, few Europeans really want to live in trackless desert. We're more into tropical paradises.
The strategic importance of the trade routes, and later, oil, keep the Middle East relevant in terms of being a region to bleed over, and yes there is still a strong religious component to that as well.
