Thread: Did the Jews save Christian Europe?

Don't forget the earlier repeated pox outbreaks that depopulated Rome and caused the western empire to pretty much implode. (And Britain to depopulate to the point where it needed to bring in the saxons, and so on.) Though the bubonic plague did play a role too. Justinian's plague, generally accepted as bubonic plague, was brought to the west in that reconquest attempt. It caused the population to implode not only in cities but...

I have heard that arguement too. That due to the inability to truly organize a lasting stability Europe was quickly able to adapt to technologies and concepts flooding in through the Middle East from all over the world and evolve the technologies and mentalities to enact worldwide colonialism. Modern European colonialism had elements and flavors that differed from most forms of imperialism up to that point.

Originally Posted by Cainkane1 When somebody cusses or insults jews i cuss and insult them back. I'm a goy but jews are ok with me. whenever one of my co-workers, or even my Deputy Director, utters homophobic language, I tell him the following: "studies have shown that people who are overtly homophobic tend to have a great deal of sexual insecurity or repressed homosexual feelings. which category do you think you fit...

Originally Posted by HansMustermann You'll notice that my reasons for calling it a dark age include more than just technology. It was a collapse of society and civilization on an unprecedented scale. Central authority collapsed, towns depopulated, and long-distance trade collapsed. Originally Posted by HansMustermann But if you want to narrow the domain strictly to technology, basically: yes. You've overlooked one important aspect...

[quote=HansMustermann;5293021]So basically if you use as weak a justification as "it was cross-cultural" for something invented elsewhere and brought over by various invaders, Europe starts to look less bad? There's nothing cross-cultural about most of the progress, except in the sense that it was invented elsewhere and over several centuries made its way to europe. How that says Europe continued to invent and innovate,...

A fascinating disscussion, I'm learning a great deal. About the origins of the 'Dark Ages': Could it be that outbreaks of the Plague from the mid-sixth century to about 750, with climactic shift to colder temperatures had anything to do with the development of these centuries. I understand the plague emptied the Iberian Penninsula to the point the Muslim Conquist of 711 was inevitable. the Islamic conquerers claimed...

All I said was that up till Napoleon Europe was a patchwork of petty states (especially germany and italy) with later on a few bigger states that had a war pretty much every 10-15 years and fights between nobles on a smaller scale a lot more often. I personally think that 'Dark ages' is misnomer invented much later and a lot of our current belief on how backward people were is plain wrong. As far as I know the scholars and sailors...

Originally Posted by parky76 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars#Rise Before the year 1,000 A.D., the Khazar Kingdom fought numerous battles against the Muslim Arabs, who were trying to move northward through the Caucusus. The Khazars, many of which converted to Judaism, defeated the Muslims, thus preventing their expansion into the Caucuses, Russia, and perhaps even Eastern and Central Europe. " You see, the Arab armies...

Originally Posted by parky76 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars#Rise Before the year 1,000 A.D., the Khazar Kingdom fought numerous battles against the Muslim Arabs, who were trying to move northward through the Caucusus. The Khazars, many of which converted to Judaism, defeated the Muslims, thus preventing their expansion into the Caucuses, Russia, and perhaps even Eastern and Central Europe. " You see, the Arab armies...

Originally Posted by HansMustermann Especially if you look at how the conversion to Christianity happened at this other end, even before the inquisition. The repeated massacres of the Saxons by Charlemagne and the destruction of their holy places, for example. The northern crusades. Etc. Yeah, I bet those people were so happy that they were being marched to the chopping block instead of getting a Muslim ruler. So in essence, what you're...