OK. Meanwhile, the Spanish spread their influence all over the world,
and
they were NOT delivering girl scout cookies and schoolbooks. Europeans
spent
hundreds of years annoying, dominating or killing people all over the
globe.
What's your point?

**********************

My point was that the "Crusades" were not responsible for driving
Muslims from Spain, as Calif. Bill supposed.

The Crusades are being viewed in a new, more favorable light by a large
number of people on the conservative side of the fence these days.
"Historical precedent". No point in giving the Crusades more credit
than they deserve. :-)

I wonder how many of the war mongers waxing nostalgic over the
Crusades, (probably a few saying, "We should have finished the job in
1130!"), actually realize that in the grand scheme of all the wars and
invasions throughout the centuries the WE (western europeans) generally
got their butts kicked?

The Spanish monarchs, F&I, treated their non-Christian subjects
ruthlessly and in equitably. That's what drove the Muslim merchants,
artists, astronomers, philosophers and doctors out of Spain, after the
Muslim military had departed. It's surprising that the right wingers
don't hail the religious persecution, execution, and expulsion of
non-conformists as one of the most glorious events in western history.