The Christians Regain Spain From the Muslims: 1492

In 718, the King of the Asturias, Chieftain Pelayo, founded its tiny kingdom in the mountains of northwestern Spain. This was the center of Christian expansion. Gradually pushing southwards, Pelayo’s forces defeated a Muslim army in the battle of Covadonga. This defeat marked the beginning of the Christian’s reconquest for Spain. However, the campaign to retake Spain from the Muslims took more than 750 years of discontinuous battles and changing of coalitions to be completed.

New Christian territories were formed by the 800’s. Under Alfonso III, the Kingdom of Asturias expanded northwest and southwards. Christian kingdoms emerged during this time. The Kingdom of Leon included land from the northwest plus the Kingdom of Asturias. The province of Castilla was created and known as the land of “Castles.” It became a kingdom in 946, when it formed a union with the Kingdom of Leon. The Kingdom of Aragon was formed on land in the east. The Kingdom of Navarre was formed on land in the Pyrenees. By the 1000’s there were four Christian kingdoms in Spain: Castilla, Leon, Navarre, and Aragon. The countries of Catalina were also Christian. Thus, Christians were on their way to annihilating the Muslim and reclaiming all of Spain.

All throughout the 1000 and 1100’s, the Christian kingdoms expanded by means of their victorious battles, collection of payments from the Muslims, and a demand tribute in gold, which financed the kings for further advancement and reconquest.

Muslim and Christians had intermittent extraordinary battles. A series of Caliphs rapidly rose and fell. Caliph Hisham III met his downfall in 1031 when the Ummayyad decline was at a point of no return. Burden with the cost of maintaining an army, the centralized Muslim territory of Al-Andulsa had broken into fragmented little kingdoms known as taifas. The Muslim Spanish-Moors remained in a state of anarchy. With this instability, the Christian kingdoms became advantageous. Consequently, they were on their way to acquiring the lasts of the Muslim’s taifas.

After much political turmoil and expansion, Spain emerged with now four distinct Christian kingdom, with Granada yet to be conquered. They were Castile, Aragon, Navarro and Portugal. The Kingdom of Castile was the largest of the kingdoms. It covered most of formerly Arab known Al-Andulsa.

The Black Death, a dreadful plague that invaded Spain from Europe, marks the 1300’s as the dark years. Darkness fell upon Spain during the 1300’s because of the Black Death, a deadly plague that swept across Europe reaching the Iberian Peninsula. The relationship between nobility and the towns people were overwrought. The towns people eventually developed their own police forces resulting in confrontations with the nobility. Additionally, great economic loss provoked feuds between the nobility. All in all, social unrest, internal wars, and economic decline prevailed within and amongst the kingdoms.

During the early 1400’s little unity existed between the Christians’ newly acquired territories. But, gradual political and legal foundations were laid to begin a process that united the scattered kingdoms. Ferdinand II of Aragon (later Ferdinand V of Castile) married his cousin Isabella I, queen of Castile. The marriage was conducted in secrecy on October 19, 1469. Once married, the pope ratified the marriage in December 1471, two years later, making the union legitimate in the eyes of the Christian world. With the union of their marriage came the union of the kingdoms. Once there was unity within the kingdoms, the king and queen were finally free to focus their attention on conquering the last taifas, Islamic territory, Granada. After a ten-year campaign to do just that, the Muslim finally surrendered in 1492, bringing an end to nearly eight centuries of Islamic civilization in Spain. The pope then gave Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II, the title of “Catholic Monarchs.”