The Crusades were a Defensive War

[najeena]

No matter what you believe about the Crusades, the end result was massive slaughter and destruction brought about by religious intolerance and greed. That Bush used the word in reference to this war was inexcusable. To my mind it shows what he's all about- cheap oil for all God-fearing Republicans, no matter the cost.

 

[Dreadsox]

Thanks be for all the intelligent dialogue in this thread...it gives me hope.

Man...a King Phillip's War thread....hehe....John Sassamon was murdered right up the road from my house here. This was one of the precursors to the war. I am not sure you can say King Phillip's war was solely the fault of the Wampanoags though Sting. It was the most bloddy war fought on the soil here in Massachusetts and unfortunately has virtually been written out of the history books.

However, here in Massachusetts Sting is 100% correct. There was virtually almost 70 years of peace between the colonists and the Wampanoags who lived here. When the first generation of settler leadership from Plymouth passed away, and the leadership of the Wampanoags went to the next generation, that began to change. Plymouth was no longer in charge of itself, being swallowed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and then the trouble began. But for one generation, there was peace.

 

[STING2]

My ancestors first settled in Boston in 1646, but by 1665 they were living in Sudbury. Generations of my family continued to live there into the 1800s. In fact distant relatives were still living there as late as the 1960s I believe. At some point, the farm and the land was sold and is now a nice housing development just northwest of Modern day Sudbury, southeast of Maynard.

 

[Blacksword]

Blacksword, you know much more about early Islamic history than I do. I've just read some pretty sketchy stuff. Any book recommendations?

Most of my knowledge comes from the fact that I'm taking a course on the history of Islam from 1300-1800, which involves and overview of teh period before it. Don't really have any specific books for you, though the Islamic World entry in teh Encylopedia Britannica Macropedia is quite extensive. That's the first section in my custom course materials and while it is incredibly dense it gives pretty much everything of inportance that happened in Islam's history. Things really get confusing as the Abbassid Caliphate (the last time more or less all of the Islamic world was united under one rule) fell apart in teh 9th and 10th centuries and the Islamic world broke into a million pieces and then got messed over by the Mongol invasions. Then things kind of evened out in the 1500's and 1600's when you have some nice neat Empires like the Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals (Moguls).

Oh and no prob Sherry, figure i should do something with this education I'm getting.

 

[Dreadsox]

Blacksword, any chance at showing the professor the article and asking for his/her opinionon it? Hehe...I used to love doing things like that..