With the Madrid bombing, continued turmoil in Iraq and constant apprehension of further terrorism, knowing the nature of this conflict is crucial. To begin with, civilization was advanced with The Reconquista (Spanish and Portuguese for reconquest). Expelling the Moorish kingdoms from Spain by the Christian rulers, Ferdinand and Isabella, allowed for the Iberian peninsula to assimilate into Renaissance Europe. With the naval Battle of Lepanto, the Christian fleet destroyed the Ottoman ships off the shore of Greece. When the Battle of Kosovo Polje was fought in 1389, a Turk victory marked the start of the centuries-long occupation of the Balkans. But with the Battle of Vienna, in 1683 the final turning point in a 250-year struggle between the forces of Christian Europe and the Ottoman Empire, the inroads of Islam were halted.
Read the entire essay from the Global Gulag archives
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