Alterity can be a powerful and unifying concept, serving to bring people together passionately towards a common goal. It has a far reaching effect in any scope or scale, from amalgamating warring local houses and tribes as in 11th Century France to coalescing adversative countries as in the Russian-American alliance during World War II. This essay will track the notion of alterity throughout history, starting with how it was used in The Song of Roland, and contain discussion regarding alterity's raison d'être, efficacy, consequences and outcomes.
             Alterity often occurs when a group of people believes dogmatically that they are correct in their beliefs, thus making everyone else who does not believe exactly what they do incorrect. Non-believers are referred to as the "Other", a demeaning and debasing view that serves to empower the potential oppressors. In 10th and 11th Century France, habitually feuding lords united under the Catholic Church's cause of expanding Christendom, only to be content with the entire world united under God. As seen in Laisse 266 of The Song of Roland, "If there is one who now refuses Charles, he has that man struck dead...and they baptized more than a hundred thousand true Christians all", it is clear that total extermination of the "Other", anyone not living under Christianity, is the ultimate goal of France's medieval society.
             "Pagans", as they were referred to in The Song of Roland, were not considered as equals but instead described as parasites, heathens, and vile creatures. To the medieval French, this mindset made a war to exterminate the Pagans appear logically and ethically inevitable. In the case of the French during the First Crusades, disposing of these lesser persons also brought them a higher pleasure. Eliminating heathens was believed to please God, which would in turn bring unto Christian Crusaders salvation in the afterlife-th...