There Reconquest is the process by which i Christian kingdoms they reconquered the Iberian Peninsula, previously almost completely controlled by Muslim dynasties. The Reconquista took place between the 8th and 15th centuriesbut the most intense and important phase developed between the 11th and 13th centuries. It wasn’t a continuous processbecause the relations between Christian and Muslim kingdoms were not always characterized by enmity, but also by phases of alliance and agreement. Inside al-Andalus (name of Islamic Spain), Christians, Muslims and Jews they lived together relatively peacefully. Wars broke out not only for ideological-religious reasons, but also for reasons of conquest, although starting from the 11th century it spirit of crusade had become particularly evident.
What was the Reconquista
The term Reconquista (“reconquest”) refers to the conquest by Christian kingdoms of the territories of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims. The Reconquista began in the 8th century, shortly after the Arab-Berber conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, and ended in 1492, when Granadathe last Islamic bastion in Europe, was conquered by the Kingdom of Castile. The Muslims called the territory they controlled Iberian al-Andalusa name that probably derived from that of the Vandal population and which still today identifies the region of Andalusia, located in southern Spain.
The Arab dominion of the Iberian Peninsula
At the beginning of the 8th century, Muslims occupied almost all of the territory in which Spain and Portugal are located today. In the 711 an army of Berbers and Arabswhich left North Africa, passed Gibraltar and in the space of a few years occupied occupied occupied almost the entire Iberian Peninsulawith the exception of the northernmost territories, constituting the emirate of al-Andalus. Inside, Muslims, Christians and Jews coexisted without excessive difficulties; the union of different cultures favored the flowering of culture and arts.
For many years al-Andalus was ruled by the Umayyadsthe Arab dynasty that, until 750, controlled much of the Muslim world. The Umayyads administered al-Andalus first as an emirate and, from the 10th century, as a caliphate (in the sense that the sovereign, called caliph, considered himself Muhammad’s successor at the head of the community of the faithful). In 1031, however, the caliphate fragmented into numerous independent kingdoms, known as kingdoms of taifa. In the following centuries, the territory was reunified for some periods by the dynasty of Almoravids and then from that of the Almohads.
The beginning of the Reconquista and Santiago Matamoros
The Reconquista began immediately after the Arab occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. The Visigoths in fact tried to counter the Muslim advance and in 722 they achieved a victory in the battle of Covadongawhich some historians consider the beginning of the Reconquista. It would take many centuries, however, for Muslim rule on the Iberian Peninsula to be overthrown.
The war, after all, it was not continuous. On many occasions the Muslim kingdoms established cordial relations and alliances with the Christian kingdoms; there was no shortage of battles in which Christians and Muslims fought among themselves rather than against the “infidels”. However, there was also one “ideological-religious” dimension of the comparison, which pushed to consider the followers of the other religion as enemies to be eliminated by the will of God. In the Christian context this interpretation was strengthened after the year 830, when the (presumed) bones of James the Greater, one of Jesus’ apostles. The cult of the saint, which would lead to the formation of the city of Santiago de Compostela, gave rise to the idea that James could “guide” the Christians in the battle against the infidels. Thus was born the iconography of Santiago Matamoros (Saint James, slayer of the Moors).
The end of the Ummayad Caliphate and the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
While much of the Iberian Peninsula was occupied by the Ummayad Caliphate, they were formed in the north five Christian kingdoms: León, Castilla, Aragon, Navarre and Catalonia, which in some periods fought against the Muslims and in others against each other; in the west the kingdom of Portugal was born. In the 11th century, when the idea of holy war and the crusades were organized in Palestine, the Christian Iberian kingdoms attacked the Muslims several times. The splitting of al-Andalus into different political entities facilitated their task and in the 11th and 12th centuries the Christian kingdoms were able to occupy vast territories.
Furthermore, in 1212 they achieved a decisive victory in the battle of Las Navas de Toulouse: The united kingdoms of Castile, Navarre and Aragon defeated the forces of the Almohads, the dynasty that had reunified Muslim Spain. Within a few decades of the battle, almost all of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Christian kingdoms.
Only the Sultanate of Granadaruled by the Nasrid dynasty, which was conquered in 1492in a completely different geopolitical situation: the marriage between Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, celebrated in 1469, had paved the way for the unification of Spain; in the Islamic sphere, a new power had emerged, the Ottoman Empire, which in 1453 had conquered Constantinople and had caused the revival of the spirit of crusade in Europe. The entry of Fernando and Isabella into Granada, which took place on 2 January 1492, was the last act of the Reconquista.
The importance of the Reconquista and the figure of the Cid
The battles against the Muslim kingdoms soon entered popular Iberian folklore and some figures took on legendary characteristics. The best known is that of Cid Campeadorpseudonym of Rodrigo Díaz de Bivar, a knight who became lord of Valencia in the second half of the 11th century and is the protagonist of the poem Singing of my Cid.
The concept of Reconquista emerged only in the nineteenth century, many centuries after the facts, but it assumed great importance in construction of the Spanish national identityalso because it developed in the same period as the creation of the unified kingdom of Spain.
