General Discussion

Since the time of the Romans?

OP kinda left out . . . everything there. Islamic conquests, the Ottoman Empire. The Byzantines, to quote the great historian Eddie Izzard, just kind of slowly collapsed like a flan in a cupboard. Their apex was probably around 11th Century, then all downhill. Even then, their only real territory in the region consisted more or less of Turkey. Hardly all of the Middle East. The Crusades accomplished very little and were a drop in the bucket compared everything else that happened in the region during the past 1,500 years. We just care about them because we take a Eurocentric view of things. The Caliphates were sittin over there like, "Tf they doin . . ." Even the Mongols tried to yolo their way into Central Europe in the 13th Century.

Europe spent the vast bulk of the post-Roman era in either a defensive posture or fighting with themselves. A good chunk of the reason European colonialism kicked off is because they didn't want to fuck around with the Middle East.

It never ceases to amaze me when "West bad!" points for applause seem to have zero understanding of . . . any history at all.