By any account, Christian Europe did not cover itself in glory, military or otherwise, when conducting its numerous Crusades in the Middle East during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.  Those who have sought (with some remarkable success) during the course of the past forty years or more to rewrite the history of our civilisation, have constantly berated us for warmongering against the peace loving (Muslim) peoples of that region.  I do not have any argument with the proposition that “we” were looking for a fight.[1] However, the suggestion that the Muslim powers were not aggressively expansionist, offends against the truth.

It is often forgotten (or more likely not even known) that Charles Martel’s Frank army saved North West Europe from conquest by the Muslims at the Battle of Poitiers in 732 AD.  Spain had already fallen to the conquering Muslims, as had all of North Africa and the Middle East.  The Austrians were still fighting for their survival against the most successful Muslim Empire, that of the Ottoman Turks, in the late seventeenth century.  Barbary pirates raided villages along the coast of southern England (seizing villagers for sale into white slavery) until the middle of the eighteenth century.

It is too readily forgotten that Europe’s (and now, the United States of America's) World ascendancy has been achieved only in the past two centuries.  Before that, it was the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.[2]

[1] And more often than not, received a pasting.

[2] For an interesting summary of the history of Islamic imperialism, see James Arlandson’s article of the 27th November 2005 in The American Thinker.