I have found medieval Europe to offer the longest lasting example of a society whose laws came closer to libertarian law than any other place or during under any other (extended period of) time.

But what of the Crusades?  Many years ago, I accepted the mainstream view – Christians, for no good reason, decided to invade and slaughter Muslims.  Look hard enough at the history of this blog, and I believe you will find one or two posts that take something like this position for granted.

But over the last couple of years my thinking has evolved – after all, there were Christians occupying this land before there were Muslims…and the Muslims didn't really convert the inhabitants in a peaceful manner.  Of course, there were others before the Christians…and so the history goes.

The First Crusade was called at the end of the eleventh century.  This was at least four centuries after Muslims conquered much of the Middle East and North Africa, and even more than three centuries after the conquest of Spain.