[henkster]

Great article.

It’s not widely publicized but the Moslems long had a practice of taking white Christians as slaves well into the 18th century, and was particularly practiced by the Turks and Tatars in Ukraine. In fact, one of the complaints against the “Barbary Pirates” was that Americans were being seized and sold into slavery.

But I’m sure the Moslems have changed. /s/

Lepanto, Tours, Vienna...all were a long line of victories of Christendom over Islam. On the other hand, thanks to the Venetian Doge Dandolo most of that suffering could have been avoided. Dandolo was behind the sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade of 1204, from which Byzantium never recovered. In so doing, Christendom lost it’s best bulwark against the spread of this barbaric cult into Europe.

I would like to thank the Venetians for their participation at Lepanto, a battle which should not have been fought at all but which they made necessary almost four centuries earlier.

[Mad Dawg]

Then there's the charming way they skinned a captured officer alive, stuffed the skin with straw and hung it from their mast top.

Lovely people.

[SES1066]

On the other hand, thanks to the Venetian Doge Dandolo most of that suffering could have been avoided.

I agree but it was not just the Venetians and Dandolo was a man of his times and was reacting against Byzantine attacks. In the wonderful world of "What might have been", a Constantinople unimpaired by the ravages of the 4th Crusade (and continuous internal dissent) might have lasted stronger and years longer.