The Crusades are the defining event of the Middle Ages. They brought the very different civilisations of Western Europe, Byzantium and Islam into an extended period of both conflict and peaceful co-existence. The biggest loser was the Byzantine Empire, which emerged shattered and doomed from the encounter. The biggest winner was Western Europe, which was brought in close contact with the older and more sophisticated civilisations of the East, and which found its own progress greatly hastened. As for Islam, the Crusades ensured that the Near East would be gradually brought under the long hegemony of the Ottomans.
Between January and March 2021, Sean Gabb explored these events with his students. Here are his lectures. All student contributions have been removed.
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