"I would be surprised to see who was behind EVERY European conflict"
I live in Cymru (still coming with that post Judah, bear with me), and who was behind the conflict that led to the forced assimilation of Cymru into the "united kingdom" were Anglo-Saxons and, before them, Romans. ("Pagan" Romans, "Christian" Romans, and "Christian" Anglo Saxons.
By the way everything wasn't completely hunky dory in ancient Cymru/Britain, in many ways the old "pagan" culture seemed to be more humane and "natural", but let's not forget that they also used to stuff people into giant wooden effigies and burn them alive. This was supposedly to appease the gods and ensure good crops, etc, but somehow I think that might have been scant comfort to the people getting burned alive (I doubt they were all volunteers).
More later