Stefan MolyneuxVerified account

Exactly. Christianity is what protected Europe. We should thank crusaders and traditional Christianity!

Not only muslims to be fair, there were also the vikings and the magyars. And before them the goths, slavs, angles, jutes and saxons, etc, etc.. Plus the romans couldn't figure out how to increase productivity.

And cutting-off established trade-routes!

That is why it always amuses me in global history courses when they would shift over to talk about the Islamic world as preserver of western science and philosophy, making the medieval renaissance possible. E.g., in preserving Plato & Aristotle for Aquinas, et. al. Convenient.

More fundamentally it resulted from the drying-up of trade/communication routes (seaborne and overland), via their appropriation first by the Jews, then by the Mohammedans; followed of course by Viking raids in France and the B.I.

A right lot

I have to disagree on this one. Its more like the dark ages and political division that came with it, make Europe an easy target. Of course, I will not deny that such continuous attacks may have contributed with the length of that period.

Had a lot to do with Christians raiding and killing Europeans for the crime of wrongthink, too.