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How and Why did Christendom survive the assault of Islam on Europe?
Jemsdaword76
It is generally agreed that the Battle of Poitiers (or Battle of Tours) in 732 was an important turning-point. The Muslims failed to conquer France.
Although at one time the Muslims ruled most of Spain, they never penetrated further east into Europe. Gradually the indigenous population of Spain fought back and reconquered Spain. The process took about 800 years, but the Muslims were formally evicted from Spain in 1492.
In the eastern end of Europe, it was the Byzantine empire that fought off the Muslim invasions. For 200 years (twelfth and thirteenth centuries) the crusades also resisted the Muslim incursions. The crusades were basically a stalemate: nobody won, but it meant the Islamic empire could not move westwards in that period. Even after the crusades ended, the Muslims had no real hope of conquering Europe until they had captured Byzantium, which they finally did in 1453.
The Ottoman Empire did attempt to expand into Europe, but most of the eastern nations - Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, etc. - fought back. The Turkish army was defeated at the Siege of Vienna in 1683.
This is the how. As to the why - there is no one reason that can summarise a thousand years of history over a whole continent. However, most people are highly motivated to avoid being conquered. In addition, most of Christendom was convinced that it had a better way of life than Islam, and therefore fought desperately to avoid being brought under sharia rule.
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