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The Crusades and the Expansion of Catholic Christendom, 1000-1714

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Professor France has crafted a masterpiece. The underlying premise of this work is that the Catholic Church, the last vestige of well articulated, persistent and centralized authority in Western Europe was able to co-opt the violence and militancy of Western Europe's "sub-kings" and redirect their energies towards expanding the Catholic sphere of influence.

The Crusades as we know them, i.e. the military expeditions to and settlement in the Levant and Asia Minor were but one sustained effort amongst many lesser known but arguably more durable and successful ventures. In particular, Prof. France highlights the continuous campaigns of "Marcher Lords" against pagan peoples, particularly the slavic peoples ("Wends" in German parlance) who inhabited the territory between the Oder and the Elbe. These campaigns received the blessing and support of the Catholic church and were often accompanied by extensive forced or voluntary conversion.

Like the efforts in the Holy Land, the "Northern Crusades" were not without their devastating reversals for the Crusaders but Prof. France suggests that the success of the Northern Crusades was due in large part to the material culture of the West seducing and overawing the pagan peoples who had no or only limited contact with materially comparable or superior civilizations unlike their counterparts in the Holy Land.

Fundamentally, Prof. France argues that Catholic Christendom constituted a unique civilization and culture that was in violent competition with two other civilizations of equal or superior capability and depth; the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Caliphate.
The ensuing wars were as much a "clash of civilizations" or Kulturkampf as they were wars of resources and territory. In particular, Prof. France argues that military and economic competition with the Byzantine Empire and Islamic Caliphate signficantly shaped the course of Western history.

A recurrent theme in this book is the major role that Western seapower played during the period 1000-1714. The ability of the West to establish and maintain naval superiority was vital in enabling the (re)conquest of Wales, Spain, the Baltic states, southern Italy and Sicliy as well as to the maintenance and reinforcement of the Latin Kingdoms in the Levant. The Ottoman Empire's sustained challenge to this naval superiority in the Mediterranean altered the balance of power and ultimately propelled the West to seek a maritime out-flanking of the Ottoman's which ultimately culminated in the Age of Disovery where the book ends.

The pace of this book is nothing short of relentless. The prose is superb and there is a real sense of the huge scale and scope of the historical narrative. Prof. France's theories are certainly controversial but his arguments are extremely well informed and articulated. This book is a *must* for any serious student of the Medieval period.