The Crusades fused violence, profit, and theology while renewing ancient Greek xenophobia

Evidence

[X]enophobia and hysteria were compounded at the inception of the Crusades and it is a mistake to view them as an isolable phenomenon They were just one European activity. Fighting, robbing, killing, trading, making profits, taking rents or tributes, all these were closely linked to philosophical and theological analysis, to the composition of history and propaganda, and even to love of one’s neighbor. The Crusades renewed the idea that we need not do as we would be done by. They were also an expression of a much older history of suspicion… . The expectation of difference goes back to the cultural intolerance of “barbarians” which is one of the less useful legacies of Greece. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 501

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• DEFINE: Establishes the deep classical genealogy of European xenophobia — traced to Greek ‘barbarian’ intolerance — key to Robinson’s argument about race’s European roots.

Related

• Crusades-era xenophobia descended from ancient Greek intolerance of barbarians (similarity 0.95)
• The Crusades were part of a broader North European expansion process. (similarity 0.82)