THE BIRTH OF WAR OUT OF THE SPIRIT OF PEACE

Abstract

Latin Christendom articulated its collective identity, first as respublica Christiana and then Europe, through construing Islam as the enemy of Christianity, and through organizing holy war against the Muslims. As a self-conscious entity, Europe was constituted through the imagined practice of cleansing itself of the Turks. Ethnic cleansing was integral to the concept of Europe from the start. Unlike Islam, Europeans did not make war in order to achieve peace but made peace in order to wage war.