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Three Forgotten Battles that Saved Europe as We Know It
It would be a much different world otherwise
There are innumerable moments that changed history; from the invention of the wheel to the signing of the Magna Carta to the cure for polio, these moments often happen without us grasping their significance at the time. We often look at events that caused nations to move in vastly different directions than previously known, such as when the American Civil War ended slavery as an institution while also firmly establishing the United States as unified country rather than a collection of states.
What we rarely pay much attention to, however, is those moments that preserve a country or civilization from radical transformation or complete eradication. The War of 1812 prevented the then-fledgling United States from falling again under British rule, and it remains one of the least-known, least-studied conflicts in our history. There were three such moments in Europe that remain equally forgotten or ignored today, moments that had they gone differently would have all of us living in a much different world.
All of these battles share a common thread, which may explain the reluctance of many today to even discuss them. They all, in one way or another, prevented Islam from becoming the dominant force in Western Europe, either at the…
