How have the Crusades been misunderstood?

While the crusades are most often depicted as an unprovoked attack on Muslim lands, these assertions are possibly based on a naïve understanding that medieval geography was similar to present day national borders and demographics, and fails to consider the historical backdrop to this period of history. The Crusades directly followed a period of Islamic expansion, as the Seljuk Empire conquered most of Anatolia from the Christian Byzantine Empire, and Crusaders sent by the Catholic Church were heeding a cry for help from these newly conquered Christian territories to the East. In this way the Crusades were not a period of psychopathic Christian aggression, but a complex web of political and individualistic ambitions set to a backdrop of warring empires and widespread conquest. It is ironic that people from all sides of the political spectrum have today ended up accepting the same mis-framing of this period of history.

breitbart.com/politics/2012/05/02/tyranny-cliche-excerpt-two catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/the-crusades/the-real-history-of-the-crusades.html historyextra.com/period/medieval/crusades-what-legacy-historians-how-affect-religion-today sullivan-county.com/religion/crusades.htm isi.org/intercollegiate-review/you-thought-the-crusades-were-eviluntil-you-read-this weaselzippers.us/213324-psst-mr-president-the-real-history-of-the-crusades-a-defensive-war