The Civilization of The Middle Ages

The christianization of Central and Northern Europe, fundamental for the formation of the unity of our civilization was considered by earlier scholarship only in terms of what took place but not in terms of the official norms of the medieval church.

The Crusades have been hailed as the driving force that brought Western Europe out of the Middle Ages—and condemned as the beginning of European imperialism in the Muslim Near East. But what really were the Crusades? What were the forces that led to one of history's most protracted and legendary periods of conflict? How did they affect the three great civilizations that participated in them? And, ultimately, why did they end and what did they accomplish?