The Crusaders were the first anti-colonialists!
My Crusades notes:
-Crusades began in 1095
-460 years after the first Christian city was overrun by Muslim armies
-450 years after Jerusalem was conquered by Muslim armies
-453 years after Egypt was taken over by Muslim armies
-443 years after Muslim armies plundered the Italian peninsula
-427 years after Muslim armies first laid siege to the Christian capital of Constantinople
-380 years after Spain was invaded and conquered by Muslim armies
-363 years after France was first invaded by Muslim armies
-249 years after the capital of the Christian world, Rome itself, was sacked by Muslim armies
… all this after centuries of church burnings, enslavement, forced conversions, and killings of Christians by Muslims
By the time the Crusades began, Muslims had conquered 2/3 of the Christian world. The Crusades were a defensive movement. The Muslim world was not a “victim.”
Well put.