35. The West Owed its Survival to the Byzantine Empire
The decline and eventual collapse of the Western Roman Empire left behind a jumble of weak, fragmented, and often feuding states in Rome’s former Western and Central European provinces. When Islam arose and the Arab conquests began in the seventh and eighth centuries, the main factor that saved a fragmented Europe from going under was the Byzantine Empire. While the Byzantines did not set out to save Europe out of a sense of benevolence, their struggle for survival absorbed most of an expansionist Islam’s military energy and effort for centuries.
As it was, Western Europe barely survived the fraction of Islamic military force sent its way by the Caliphate at its height. That small fraction conquered Spain, and came close to overrunning France. Europe would have faced greater Islamic resources and armies, with untold history-altering consequences, if those resources and armies had not been busy dealing with the Byzantines.
