Crusades: The Hidden History of the Crusaders and the Conspiracies That Followed Free online reading

Discover the hidden history of the Crusades and the many conspiracy theories that followed! What led to the crusades and why the effects of the Crusades still resonate on Christianity and Islam religions today.

The Crusades are events which have marked the middle ages for Europe as well as for the Arabian world, yet at times we seem to not know nearly enough as what we should. Explore why this could be so while learning of what has transpired during the centuries of confrontation between the two most widespread religions of the world.

For centuries, the meaning of and the reason behind the Crusades has shifted, depending on who is telling the narrative. In the days of Voltaire, in which resentful Renaissance writers were often more than ready to impugn the Catholic Church, the Crusades were often depicted as acts of medieval stupidity in which drunken, belligerent, and debauched masses of Europeans were blinded by religious intolerance, and goaded to attack others. Then, by the 19th century, the Crusade narrative shifted again, and in the world of far-flung European colonies the Crusades were seen and understood through the lens of imperialism, and many explained the Crusades as nothing more than an early attempt at colonialism.

This mythical narrative of unwarranted European aggression continued to promulgate itself through the years until it was widely believed that the Islamic world was a completely innocent victim of the Crusades. Many came to believe that the Muslims did nothing at all to provoke the West and instead were the sole arbiters of high civilization and knowledge in a dark age, who were unfairly targeted by militant Western barbarians. But by the early 21st century, perceptions began to change again as modern examples of Muslim extremists began to make front page news with increasing frequency.

When the brutally extreme conquering hordes of ISIS came on the scene, routinely making mass murder, rape, enslavement, and the destruction of entire civilizations a part of their regular repertoire, people began to look at the Crusades just a little bit differently. They began to consider the possibility that perhaps there was something more to the Crusades after all. Perhaps the Islamic world of yesteryear had some of the same extremism operating back then. Even former US President Barak Obama, in a 2015 address that turned into a marathon message on everything from the Crusades to ISIS, seemed to invoke the idea that history was repeating itself, and that all this was "nothing new."

Now, people are wondering what the real reasons for the Crusades were. This audiobook explores the major events and motivations of all parties involved during this pivotal moment in history, as well as some of the conspiratorial intrigues that came along the way.