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{{Short description|Series of medieval Christian military campaigns}}
{{italic title}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2025}}
[[File:Cantigas battle.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Detail of the [[Cantigas de Santa Maria|Cantiga #63]] (13th century), which deals with a late 10th-century battle in San Esteban de Gormaz involving the troops of [[García Fernández|Count García]] and [[Almanzor]]<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://produccioncientifica.ucm.es/documentos/5d399a13299952068445dc80|title=Composición, estilo y texto en la miniatura del Códice Rico de las CSM|journal=Alcanate: Revista de Estudios Alfonsíes|issn=1579-0576|year=2012|first=M.ª Victoria|last=Chico Picaza|volume=8 |page=170−171}}</ref>]]
The '''''Reconquista''''' ([[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] for {{gloss|reconquest}}){{efn|While it is largely spelled in the same way, the pronunciation of it varies among the different languages which are spoken on the [[Iberian Peninsula]] as well as in neighboring territories. The pronunciations of it are as follows:
* [[Asturleonese language|Asturleonese]], [[Galician language|Galician]] and {{IPA|es|rekoŋˈkista|lang|small=no}};
* {{IPA|pt|ʁɨkõˈkiʃtɐ|lang|small=no}};
* {{IPA|ca|rəkuŋˈkestə|lang|link=yes|small=no}} or {{IPA|ca|rekoŋˈkesta|}}, spelled ''Reconquesta''; colloquially also known as and spelled ''Reconquista'' (pron. {{IPA|ca|rəkuŋˈkistə|}} or {{IPA|ca|rekoŋˈkista|}});
* {{IPA|eu|erekoŋkis̺ta|lang|link=yes|small=no}}, spelled ''Errekonkista'';
* {{IPA|an|ɾekoŋˈkjesta|lang|link=yes|small=no}}, spelled ''Reconquiesta'';
* {{IPA|oc|rekuŋˈkɛsta|lang|label=[[Aranese dialect|Aranese]] and [[Gascon dialect|Gascon]]:|small=no}}, spelled ''Reconquèsta'', or {{IPA|oc|rekuŋˈkistɔ|}}, spelled ''Reconquista'';
* {{IPA|fr|ʁəkɔ̃kɛt|lang|link=yes|small=no}}, spelled ''Reconquête''; ''Reconquista'' commonly used as well.}} or the '''fall of al-Andalus'''{{efn|{{langx|ar|الاسترداد|al-Istirdād|the Recovery}}, although it is more commonly known as {{lang|ar|سقوط الأندلس}} ''suqūṭ al-Andalus'' 'the fall of [[al-Andalus]]'.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kabha |first=M. |date=2023 |title=The Fall of Al-Andalus and the Evolution of its Memory in Modern Arab-Muslim Historiography |journal=The Maghreb Review |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=289–303 |doi=10.1353/tmr.2023.a901468 |s2cid=259503095 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/457/article/901468/summary|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Al-Mallah |first=M. |date=2019 |title=The Afterlife of Al-Andalus: Muslim Iberia in Contemporary Arab and Hispanic Narratives |volume=56 |issue=1 |url=https://doi.org/10.5325/complitstudies.56.1.e-22 |journal=Comparative Literature Studies |pages=e–22 |doi=10.5325/complitstudies.56.1.e-22|s2cid=239092774 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>}} was a series of military and cultural campaigns by Northern Christian polities against Muslim-ruled [[al-Andalus]], which had previously been part of the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] before the [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula|Muslim Conquest of 711]]. The ''Reconquista'' concluded in 1492 with the [[Granada War#Last stand at Granada|capture of Granada]] by the [[Catholic Monarchs of Spain]], thereby ending the presence of any Muslim rule on the [[Iberian Peninsula]].<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Reconquista |encyclopedia=Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconquista |date=23 November 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Caraccioli |first=Mauro José |title=Narratives of Conquest and the Conquest of Narrative |date=2021 |work=Writing the New World |pages=14–38 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1gt9419.6 |access-date=11 September 2024 |series=The Politics of Natural History in the Early Spanish Empire |publisher=University Press of Florida |jstor=j.ctv1gt9419.6 |isbn=978-1-68340-170-4|quote=La Reconquista: a 700-year military and cultural campaign against the Moorish Caliphates of Southern Iberia that culminated in the joint reign of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile as Reyes Católicos.}}</ref>

The beginning of the ''Reconquista'' is traditionally dated to the [[Battle of Covadonga]] ({{circa|718}} or 722), approximately a decade after the [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula]] began, in which the army of the [[Kingdom of Asturias]] achieved the first Christian victory over the forces of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] since the beginning of the military invasion.<ref>{{harvnb|Collins|1989|p=147}}; {{harvnb|Reilly|1993|pp=75–76}}; {{harvnb|Deyermond|1985|p=346}}; {{harvnb|Hillgarth|2009|p=66 n. 28}}</ref> By the early 11th century, the [[Umayyad state of Córdoba|Caliphate of Córdoba]] endured state collapse into a series of petty successor states known as ''[[taifa]]s''. The northern kingdoms advanced further against these fiefdoms and often made them subject to [[parias|a protection racket system]].<ref>[http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=parias "parias."] ''[[Diccionario de la Lengua Española]]'', 22nd ed. (online).</ref><ref>According to Catlos, 83, Arabic authors referred to the ''parias'' as a ''[[jizya]]'', the equivalent of the Islamic head tax on non-believers.</ref><ref name="fletcher">Fletcher, 7–8.</ref><ref>Reilly, 9.</ref>  

In the 12th century, [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]], [[Kingdom of León|León]] and [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]], and the [[Crown of Aragon]] made territorial advances sometimes offset by [[Almohad]] campaigns. [[military order (religious society)|Military order]]s took a prominent role both in warfare and settlement policies. Castile conquered the [[Baetic Depression|Guadalquivir basin]] with the largest Muslim population centres in the 13th century—leaving  the Muslim enclave of Granada as a [[tributary state]] in the south. After the [[Granada War|surrender of Granada]] in 1492, the entire Iberian peninsula was controlled by Christian rulers. While a share of the Muslim population in conquered territories exiled from the peninsula to the [[Maghreb]], State edicts enacting the [[forced assimilation]] and [[Limpieza de sangre|social discrimination]] of the remaining people (''[[Moriscos]]'') ensued throughout the following century.

Beginning in the 19th century,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.diariodeburgos.es/noticia/ZD86B418D-DD64-5400-8FBA1220E9A23524/20131102/reconquista/es/mito |title=La reconquista es un mito|date=2 November 2013 |website= Diario de Burgos|language=es|access-date=13 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925134813/https://www.diariodeburgos.es/noticia/ZD86B418D-DD64-5400-8FBA1220E9A23524/20131102/reconquista/es/mito |archive-date=25 September 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> traditional historiography has used the term ''Reconquista'' as the restoration of the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] over conquered territories.{{Citation needed|date=October 2025}}<ref>{{Cite report|last=Ríos Saloma|first=Martín|title=La Reconquista: génesis de un mito historiográfico |url= https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/589/58922939009.pdf|publisher=Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas/UNAM Departamento de Historia México|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053429/http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/589/58922939009.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Sanjuán, Alejandro García. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alejandro_Garcia-Sanjuan/publication/270048623_Al-Andalus_en_la_historiografia_del_nacionalismo_espanolista_Entre_la_Espana_musulmana_y_la_Reconquista_siglos_XIX-XXI/links/549e989c0cf202801ea7b7f3/Al-Andalus-en-la-historiografia-del-nacionalismo-espanolista-Entre-la-Espana-musulmana-y-la-Reconquista-siglos-XIX-XXI.pdf#page=65 "Al-Andalus en la historiografía del nacionalismo españolista (siglos xix–xxi). Entre la Reconquista y la España musulmana."] ''A 1300 Años de la conquista de Al-Andalus (711–2011)'' (2012): 65.</ref>  The concept of ''Reconquista'', consolidated in Spanish historiography in the second half of the 19th century, was associated with [[Spanish nationalism]] during the period of [[Romantic nationalism]].<ref name="Fitz2009">{{harvnb|García Fitz|2009|pp=144–145}} "Hay que reconocer que la irrupción de este concepto en la historiografía hispánica del siglo XIX, con su fuerte carga nacionalista, romántica y, en ocasiones, colonialista, tuvo un éxito notable y se transmitió, manteniendo algunos de sus rasgos identitarios más llamativos, a la del siglo XX. [It is necessary to recognize that the emergence of this concept in Iberian historiography of the 19th century, with its strong dual nationalistic, romantic and, at times, colonialist emphasis, had a remarkable success and was transmitted, retaining some of its most striking features, into the 20th century.]"</ref> Recent scholarship describes the ''Reconquista'' as a process that unfolded in multiple episodes, with regional variation.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}}<ref name="Fernández-Morera2016">{{cite book |last1=Fernández-Morera |first1=Darío |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJNgCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT50 |title=The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise |date=2016 |publisher=Open Road Media |isbn=978-1-5040-3469-2 |page=50 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="O'Callaghan2013">{{cite book |last1=O'Callaghan |first1=Joseph F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6fPSBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |title=Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain |date=2013 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-0306-6 |pages=18–19}}</ref> It is the inspiration for the ''[[Moros y cristianos]]'' festival, popular in the southern [[Valencian Community]], and which is also celebrated in parts of [[Spanish America]]. The concept is also a meme of significance for the 21st century European [[Far-right politics|far-right]], who claims it as a symbol of an imagined quintessential Europe to be snatched away from the hands of Muslims and liberals.{{Sfn|Silva|2020|pp=57–65}}<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Paone |first1=Antony |last2=Thomas |first2=Leigh |date=6 December 2021 |title=Far-right French presidential hopeful promises 'reconquest' at rally |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/far-right-french-presidential-hopeful-promises-reconquest-rally-2021-12-05/ |access-date=22 June 2022}}</ref>
==Concept and duration==
The term 'Reconquista' was not used by medieval writers to describe the struggle between Christians and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula. Since its development as a term in historiography occurred centuries after the events it references, it has acquired various meanings. Its meaning as an actual "reconquest" has been subject to the particular concerns or prejudices of scholars, who have sometimes wielded it as a weapon in ideological disputes.{{sfn|García Fitz|2009|pp=144–145}}

A discernible [[Irredentism|irredentist ideology]] that became part of the concept of Christian conquest appeared in writings by the end of the 9th century.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval">{{cite book |last=McKitterick |first=Rosamond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZEaSdNBL0sgC&pg=PA289 |title=The New Cambridge Medieval. History 1 |author2=Collins, R. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 |isbn=978-0521362924 |page=289 |quote=By the later ninth century some of the distinctive ideology of the later 'Reconquista' had come into being. Christian writers, such as the anonymous author of the so-called 'Prophetic Chronicle' of 883/4, could look forward to the expulsion of the Arabs from Spain, and a sense of both an ethnic and a religious-cultural divide between the inhabitants of the small northern kingdoms and the dominant elite in the south was marked in the writings of both sides. On the other hand, it is unwise to be too linear in the approach to the origins of the 'Reconquista', as tended to be the way with Spanish historiography in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Periods of peaceful co-existence or of limited and localised frontier disturbances were more frequent than ones of all-out military conflict between al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms. As has been mentioned, the former never made any serious effort to eliminate the latter. Moreover, as in the case of relations between the Arista dynasty in Pamplona and the Banü Qasi, the mutual interest could be a stronger bond than ideological divisions based on antagonistic creeds. These tendencies were, if anything, to be reinforced in the tenth century. |author-link=Rosamond McKitterick |access-date=26 July 2012}}</ref> For example, the anonymous Christian chronicle ''[[Chronica Prophetica]]'' (883–884) claimed a historical connection between [[Tariq ibn Ziyad]]'s conquest of the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] in 711 and the [[Kingdom of Asturias]] in which the document was produced, and stressed a Christian and Muslim cultural and religious divide in Hispania, and a necessity to drive out the Muslims and restore conquered territories. Literature from both sides described a divide based on ethnicity and culture between the inhabitants of the small Christian kingdoms of the north and the dominant elite in the Muslim-ruled south.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval" />

[[File:ChristianAndMuslimPlayingChess-cropped2.jpg|thumb|One of the arguments challenging the concept of ''Reconquista'' is that for the majority of the 781 years of Islamic rule in Iberia, Muslims and Christians coexisted and were not at war with each other.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval" /><ref name="AlfonsoX1283">{{cite web |last1=Alfonso X |first1=Rey de Castilla |title=Libro del axedrez, dados e tablas [Folio 64R (croppped)] |url=https://rbdigital.realbiblioteca.es/s/rbme/item/13125 |website=rbdigital.realbiblioteca.es |publisher=Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial |access-date=24 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123235323/https://rbdigital.realbiblioteca.es/s/rbme/item/13125 |archive-date=23 November 2021 |date=1283}}</ref>]]

The linear approach to the origins of the Reconquista adopted in early twentieth-century historiography is complicated by several issues.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval" /> For example, periods of peaceful coexistence, or at least of limited and localised skirmishes on the frontiers, were more prevalent over the 781 years of Muslim rule than periods of significant military conflict.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval" /> Additionally, both Christian and Muslim rulers [[#Infighting|fought other Christians and Muslims]], and cooperation and alliances between Muslims and Christians were not uncommon, such as between [[Íñigo Arista]], the founder of the Kingdom of Pamplona (later 'Navarre'), and the [[Banu Qasi]] as early as the 9th century.<ref name="CambridgeMedieval" /><ref name="Keefe" /> Blurring distinctions even further were the [[mercenaries]] from both sides who fought for whoever paid the most.<ref name="Keefe" /> The period is seen today to have had long episodes of relative religious coexistence and tolerance such as the [[Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain]].<ref name="Menocal2009">{{cite book |last1=Menocal |first1=Maria Rosa |title=The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain |date=2009 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-316-09279-1 |pages=214, 223 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4dxbqEmU-OkC&pg=PT214 }} .</ref> 

[[File:Almohad1200.png|thumb|The [[Almohad Caliphate]] and surrounding states, including the Christian Kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]], [[Kingdom of León|Leon]], [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]], [[Kingdom of Navarre|Navarre]], and the [[Crown of Aragon]], c. 1200]]

Documents dating from the 10th and 11th centuries are mute on any idea of reconquest. The [[Crusades]], which started late in the 11th century, birthed the religious ideology of a reconquest. In al-Andalus, Christian states of that era were confronted by the century-long rule of the [[Sanhaja]]-ruled [[Almoravid dynasty]] and subsequently the religious extremism of the [[Almohad Caliphate]] of the [[Masmuda]], which supported a similarly staunch ideology of [[jihad]].<ref name="O'Callaghan2013" />

Propaganda accounts of Muslim-Christian hostility came into being to support that idea, most notably the ''[[Chanson de Roland]]'', an 11th-century French ''[[chanson de geste]]'' that offers a fictionalised retelling of the [[Battle of Roncevaux Pass]] dealing with the [[Saracen]]s or [[Moors]], and centuries later introduced in the French school system to instill moral and national values in the population following the 1870 defeat of the French in the [[Franco-Prussian War]], regardless of the actual events.<ref>{{cite journal|title='Pagans are wrong and Christians are right': Alterity, Gender, and Nation in the ''Chanson de Roland''|last=Kinoshita|first=Sharon|journal=Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies|volume=31|issue=1|date=Winter 2001|pages=79–111|doi=10.1215/10829636-31-1-79|s2cid=143132248}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=DiVanna |first1=Isabel N. |year=2010 |title=Politicizing national literature: the scholarly debate around La Chanson de Roland in the nineteenth century |journal=Historical Research |volume=84 |issue=223 |pages=109–134 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2281.2009.00540.x |url= }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Lucken |first=Christopher |title=Actualité de la Chanson de Roland: Une épopée populaire au programme d'agrégation |date=16 April 2019 |url=http://books.openedition.org/pur/52857 |work=Le savant dans les Lettres |pages=93–106 |editor-last=Bähler |editor-first=Ursula |series=Interférences |place=Rennes |publisher=Presses universitaires de Rennes |isbn=978-2-7535-5783-3 |access-date=18 November 2022 |editor2-last=Cangemi |editor2-first=Valérie |editor3-last=Corbellari |editor3-first=Alain}}</ref>

The consolidation of the modern idea of a Reconquista is inextricably linked to the foundational myths of 19th-century Spanish nationalism, associated with the development of a Centralist, Castilian, and staunchly Catholic nationalism,{{sfn|García Fitz|2009|p=152}} evoking nationalistic, romantic and sometimes colonialist themes.<ref name="Fitz2009" /> The concept gained further track in the 20th century during the [[Francoist dictatorship]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.eldiario.es/andalucia/enabierto/elecciones_en_Andalucia_2018-reconquista-Vox_6_843125717.html |title=Vox, la Reconquista y la salvación de España |last= Alejandro García Sanjuán|website=eldiario.es|date=5 December 2018|language=es|access-date=15 February 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190216094117/https://www.eldiario.es/andalucia/enabierto/elecciones_en_Andalucia_2018-reconquista-Vox_6_843125717.html |archive-date=16 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> It thus became one of the key tenets of the historiographical discourse of [[National Catholicism]], the mythological and ideological identity of the regime. The discourse was underpinned in its most traditional version by an avowed 'historical illegitimacy' of al-Andalus and the subsequent glorification of the Christian conquest.<ref>{{Cite journal |page=133|last=García Sanjuán|first=Alejandro|year=2016|title=La persistencia del discurso nacionalcatólico sobre el Medievo peninsular en la historiografía española actual|journal= Historiografías|volume=12|issn=2174-4289|issue= 12 |doi=10.26754/ojs_historiografias/hrht.2016122367|url=https://papiro.unizar.es/ojs/index.php/historiografias/article/view/2367|publisher=[[University of Zaragoza|Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza]]|location=Zaragoza|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The idea of a "liberation war" against Muslims, who were viewed as foreigners, suited the [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|anti-Republican rebels]] of the [[Spanish Civil War]]. This Nationalist faction agitated for the banner of the ''patria'', the [[Homeland#Romance_languages|fatherland]] which, according to them, was being threatened by [[regionalism (politics)|regionalism]] and [[communism]].{{Sfn|García Fitz|2009|pp=146–147}} Their rebellious pursuit was thus a crusade for the restoration of the unity of the Church and State, where Franco stood for both [[Pelagius of Asturias]] and [[El Cid]].{{Sfn |García Fitz|2009|pp=146–147}}

The Reconquista has become a rallying call for [[right-wing populism|right-wing populist]] and [[History of the far-right in Spain|far-right parties of Spain]] such as [[Vox (political party)|Vox]] to expel from office incumbent progressive or peripheral nationalist options as well as their values in different political contexts.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.publico.es/politica/ultraderecha-vox-rescata-viejo-concepto-reconquista.html|title=¿Por qué Vox rescata ahora el viejo concepto de 'Reconquista'?|website= www.publico.es |date=15 January 2019 |access-date=15 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216035443/https://www.publico.es/politica/ultraderecha-vox-rescata-viejo-concepto-reconquista.html |archive-date=16 February 2019 |url-status= live}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.europapress.es/nacional/noticia-casado-apelar-vox-reconquista-pp-empezado-reconquista-andalucia-acabara-asturias-20190111154752.html |title=Casado, tras apelar Vox a la Reconquista: El PP ha empezado la reconquista por Andalucía y la acabará en Asturias|publisher= Europa Press |date= 11 January 2019|access-date=15 February 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190216035637/https://www.europapress.es/nacional/noticia-casado-apelar-vox-reconquista-pp-empezado-reconquista-andalucia-acabara-asturias-20190111154752.html |archive-date=16 February 2019|url-status= live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eldiario.es/clm/vox-santiago-abascal-reconquista-toledo_0_863014649.html |title= Vox designa a Toledo como el punto donde comenzar la 'reconquista' del centro de España|last=Bravo|first= Francisca |website=eldiario.es|date=31 January 2019|language=es|access-date=15 February 2019|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190216035503/https://www.eldiario.es/clm/vox-santiago-abascal-reconquista-toledo_0_863014649.html|archive-date=16 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.elnacional.cat/es/politica/casado-reconquista-engano-independentismo_290181_102.html|title=Casado promete una 'reconquista' para que 'caiga el engaño independentista'|website=ElNacional.cat|date=21 July 2018|access-date=15 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216040924/https://www.elnacional.cat/es/politica/casado-reconquista-engano-independentismo_290181_102.html|archive-date=16 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

Similar propaganda was circulated during the [[Spanish Civil War]] by the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republicans]], who wanted to portray their enemies as foreign invaders, especially given the prominence of the [[Army of Africa (Spain)|Army of Africa]] among Franco's troops. This army consisted of [[Berbers|Berber]] soldiers of the [[Tiradores de Ifni]] and [[Regulares]] from the [[Spanish protectorate in Morocco]].<ref>Bolorinos Allard, Elisabeth. "The Crescent and the Dagger: Representations of the Moorish Other during the Spanish Civil War." ''Bulletin of Spanish Studies'' 93, no. 6 (2016): 965–988.</ref>

Traditionalist scholarship viewed the Reconquista as proof that the process of Christian state-building in Iberia was often defined by the reclamation of lands that had been lost to foreigners in past generations. State-building was characterised—at least in ideological, if not practical, terms—as a process by which Iberian states were being "rebuilt".<ref name="Purkis">{{cite book |title= Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Perspectives on State Building in the Iberian Peninsula |last= Purkis |first= William J. |year= 2010 |publisher= University of Birmingham |pages= 57–58 |access-date= 15 October 2017 |url= https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/GCMS/RMS-2010-05_W._J._Purkis,_Eleventh-_and_Twelfth-Century_Perspectives_on_State_Building_in_the_Iberian_Peninsula.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171016070114/https://www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/GCMS/RMS-2010-05_W._J._Purkis,_Eleventh-_and_Twelfth-Century_Perspectives_on_State_Building_in_the_Iberian_Peninsula.pdf |archive-date= 16 October 2017 |url-status= live }}</ref> Current historians dispute the entire concept of the Reconquista as created [[a posteriori]] in the service of later political goals. A few historians point out that Spain and Portugal did not previously exist as nations and the heirs of the Christian [[Visigothic Kingdom]] were not ''re''conquering them, as the name suggests.<ref>Eugènia de Pagès, "''La 'Reconquista', allò que mai no va existir''", ''La Lamentable'', 11 July 2014, [http://lamentable.org/la-reconquista-allo-que-mai-no-va-existir/ lamentable.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828161547/http://lamentable.org/la-reconquista-allo-que-mai-no-va-existir/ |date=28 August 2017 }}</ref><ref>Martín M. Ríos Saloma, "''La Reconquista. Génesis de un mito historiográfico''", ''Historia y Grafía'', 30, 2008, pp. 191–216, [http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/589/58922939009.pdf redalyc.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053429/http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/589/58922939009.pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}, Retrieved 12 October 2014.</ref> One of the first Spanish intellectuals to question the idea of a "reconquest" that lasted for eight centuries was [[José Ortega y Gasset]], writing in the first half of the 20th century.<ref>"''Yo no entiendo cómo se puede llamar reconquista a una cosa que dura ocho siglos''" ("I don't understand how something that lasted eight centuries can be called a reconquest"), in ''España invertebrada''. Quoted by De Pagès, E. 11 July 2014.</ref> However, the term ''Reconquista'' is still widely in use.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Horswell |first1=Mike |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KI6lDwAAQBAJ&dq=reconquista+nowadays&pg=PT64 |title=The Crusades in the Modern World: Engaging the Crusades, Volume Two |last2=Awan |first2=Akil N. |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-25046-7 |language=en}}</ref>

== Background ==
{{Further|Islam in Spain}}
{{Campaignbox Reconquista}}
=== Landing in Visigothic Hispania and initial expansion ===
{{Further|Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula|Battle of Guadalete}}

In 711, a predominantly [[Berbers|Berber]] army commanded by [[Tariq ibn Ziyad]] crossed the [[Strait of Gibraltar]], engaging a Visigothic force led by King [[Roderic]] at the [[Battle of Guadalete]] (19–26 July) in a moment of severe infighting and division across the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] of [[Hispania]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nick |date=10 November 2022 |title=Battle of Guadalete: 2 Reasons It Changed History |url=https://thehistoryace.com/battle-of-guadalete-2-reasons-it-changed-history/ |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=The History Ace |language=en-us}}</ref> Many of Roderic's troops deserted, leading to his defeat. He drowned while crossing the [[Guadalquivir]].

After Roderic's defeat, the Umayyad governor of [[Ifriqiya]], [[Musa ibn Nusayr]], joined Tariq, directing a campaign against different towns and strongholds in Hispania. Some, like [[Mérida, Spain|Mérida]], [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]], or [[Zaragoza]] in 712, and probably [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]] as well, were captured. Others agreed to a treaty in exchange for maintaining autonomy, such as [[Theodemir (Visigoth)|Theodemir]]'s dominion in the southeastern peninsula, or the area of [[Pamplona]].{{sfn|Collins|1989|pp=38–45}} The invading Islamic armies did not exceed 60,000 men.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fletcher|first=Richard|title=Moorish Spain|year=2006|publisher=Los Angeles: University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24840-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/moorishspain00rich/page/43 43]|url=https://archive.org/details/moorishspain00rich/page/43}}</ref>

=== Islamic rule ===
{{Main|Berbers and Islam|Berber Revolt|}}
[[File:Al Andalus - 2.png|thumb|250px|The [[Caliphate of Córdoba]] in the early 10th century]]
After the establishment of a local [[emirate]], [[Al-Walid I]], ruler of the [[Umayyad Caliphate]], removed many of the successful Muslim commanders. Tariq ibn Ziyad was recalled to [[Damascus]] and replaced with Musa ibn-Nusayr, who had been his former superior. Musa's son, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, apparently married [[Egilona]], [[Roderic]]'s widow, and established his regional government in [[Seville]]. He was suspected of being under the influence of his wife and was accused of wanting to convert to Christianity and of planning a secessionist rebellion. A concerned Al-Walid I ordered Abd al-Aziz's assassination. Al-Walid I died in 715 and was succeeded by his brother, [[Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik]]. Sulayman appears to have punished the surviving Musa ibn Nusayr, who died during the [[Hajj]] in 716. In the end, Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa's cousin, [[Ayyub ibn Habib al-Lakhmi]], became the [[Wali (administrative title)|wali (governor)]] of al-Andalus.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

A significant weakness among the Muslim conquerors was the ethnic tension between Berbers and [[Arabs]].<ref>[[Chris Lowney]], ''A Vanished World: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain'', (Oxford University Press, 2005), 40.</ref> The Berbers were indigenous inhabitants of North Africa who had only recently converted to Islam; they provided most of the soldiery of the invading armies, but experienced [[mawla|systematised discrimination]].<ref>Roger Collins, ''Early Medieval Spain'', (St. Martin's Press, 1995), 164.</ref> This latent internal conflict jeopardised Umayyad unity. The Umayyad forces arrived and crossed the [[Pyrenees]] by 719 and conquered [[Narbonne|Narbona]]. The last Visigothic king, [[Ardo]], resisted them in [[Septimania]], where he fended off the Berber–Arab armies until 720.<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|page=45}}</ref> 

After the Umayyad conquests of 711–718 and the establishment of the state, an expedition suffered a major defeat at the [[Battle of Toulouse (721)|Battle of Toulouse]] against the armies of the [[Duchy of Aquitaine]]. [[Odo the Great]] had married his daughter to [[Munuza]], a rebel and lord of [[Cerdanya]] (trans-Pyrenean [[Catalunya]]), in an attempt to secure his southern borders to fend off [[Charles Martel]]'s attacks on the north. However, a major [[punitive expedition]] led by Amir [[Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah al-Ghafiqi]] defeated and killed Uthman, and the governor then mustered an expedition north across the western Pyrenees, looted areas up to [[Bordeaux]], and then defeated Odo in the [[Battle of the River Garonne]] in 732.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Reconquista {{!}} Map and Timeline |url=https://history-maps.com/story/Reconquista |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=HistoryMaps |language=en}}</ref>

A desperate Odo turned to his archrival [[Charles Martel]] for help, who led the remaining Aquitanian armies alongside his [[Franks|Frankish]] forces against the Umayyad armies, defeating them in the [[Battle of Tours]] on 10 October 732, killing al Ghafiqi. While Muslim rule began to recede in what is now France, it would remain in the Iberian Peninsula for another 760 years.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trawinski |first1=Allan |title=The Clash of Civilizations |year= 2017 |publisher=Page Publishing Inc. |isbn=978-1635687125}}{{page needed|date=May 2023}}</ref>

== Early Reconquista ==

=== Beginning of the ''Reconquista'' ===
{{Main|Kingdom of Asturias}}
[[File:El rey Don Pelayo en Covadonga (Museo del Prado).jpg|thumb|[[Pelagius of Asturias|Don Pelayo]] in [[Covadonga]], Luis de Madrazo y kuntz, The painting depicts [[Pelagius of Asturias|Don Pelayo]], the first monarch of the [[Kingdom of Asturias]], in the [[Battle of Covadonga]], where he achieved the first Christian victory over Muslim forces in the Iberian Peninsula. This event is traditionally regarded as the symbolic beginning of the Reconquista.]]
A drastic increase of taxes on Christians by the emir [[Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi]] provoked several rebellions in al-Andalus, which a series of succeeding weak emirs were unable to suppress. Around 722, a Muslim military expedition was sent into the north in late summer to suppress a rebellion led by [[Pelagius of Asturias]] (Pelayo in Spanish, Pelayu in Asturian). Traditional historiography has hailed Pelagius's [[Battle of Covadonga|victory at Covadonga]] as the beginning of the ''Reconquista''.<ref>{{Citation |title=Covadonga, la batalla que cambió la historia de España |date=27 May 2022 |url=https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/panorama-regional/covadonga-la-batalla-que-cambio-la-historia-de-espana/6549431/ |language=es |access-date=11 August 2022}}</ref>

Two northern realms, Navarre<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|page=181}}</ref> and Asturias, despite their small size, demonstrated an ability to maintain their independence. Because the Umayyad rulers based in [[Córdoba, Andalusia|Córdoba]] were unable to extend their power over the Pyrenees, they decided to consolidate their power within the Iberian peninsula. Arab-Berber forces made periodic incursions deep into Asturias, but this area was a ''cul-de-sac'' on the fringes of the Islamic world fraught with inconveniences during campaigns and of little interest.<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|page=156}}</ref>

It comes then as no surprise that, besides focusing on raiding the Arab-Berber strongholds of the Meseta, [[Alfonso I of Asturias]] centred on expanding his domains at the expense of the neighbouring Galicians and Basques at either side of his realm just as much.<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|pages=156, 159}}</ref> During the first decades, Asturian control over part of the kingdom was weak, and for this reason it had to be continually strengthened through matrimonial alliances and war with other peoples from the north of the Iberian Peninsula. After Pelayo's death in 737, his son [[Favila of Asturias]] was elected king. Favila, according to the chronicles, was killed by a bear during a trial of courage. Pelayo's dynasty in Asturias survived and gradually expanded the kingdom's boundaries until all of northwest Hispania was included by roughly 775. However, credit is due to him and to his successors, the ''Banu Alfons'' from the Arab chronicles. Further expansion of the northwestern kingdom towards the south occurred during the reign of [[Alfonso II of Asturias]] (from 791 to 842). A king's expedition arrived in and pillaged Lisbon in 798, probably concerted with the Carolingians.<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|page=212}}</ref>

The Asturian kingdom became firmly established with the recognition of Alfonso II as king of Asturias by [[Charlemagne]] and the Pope. During his reign, the bones of [[James, son of Zebedee|St. James the Great]] were declared to have been found in Galicia, at [[Santiago de Compostela]]. Pilgrims from all over Europe opened a channel of communication between the isolated Asturias and the Carolingian lands and beyond, centuries later.<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 July 2021 |title=The Way of St. James – Bodega Tandem |url=https://tandem.es/en/camino/ |access-date=11 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731161327/https://tandem.es/en/camino/ |archive-date=31 July 2021 }}</ref>

=== Frankish invasions ===
{{Main|Umayyad invasion of Gaul|Marca Hispanica}}

After the Umayyad conquest of the Iberian heartland of the Visigothic kingdom, the Muslims crossed the Pyrenees and gradually took control of [[Septimania]], starting in 719 with the conquest of [[Narbonne]] through 725 when [[Carcassonne]] and [[Nîmes]] were secured. From the stronghold of Narbonne, they tried to conquer [[Aquitaine]] but suffered a major defeat at the [[Battle of Toulouse (721)]].<ref name="Lewis AR 20-33">{{cite book|title=The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050|last=Lewis|first=Archibald R.|author-link=Archibald Ross Lewis|year=1965|publisher=The University of Texas Press|pages=20–33|access-date=28 October 2017|url=http://libro.uca.edu/lewis/sfcatsoc.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211183903/http://libro.uca.edu/lewis/sfcatsoc.htm|archive-date=11 December 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

Ten years after halting their advance north, [[Odo of Aquitaine]] married his daughter to [[Uthman ibn Naissa]], a rebel Berber and lord of [[Cerdanya]] (perhaps all of contemporary Catalonia as well), in an attempt to secure his southern borders to fend off [[Charles Martel]]'s attacks on the north. However, a major [[punitive expedition]] led by [[Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi]], the latest emir of al-Andalus, defeated and killed Uthman.<ref name="Lewis AR 20-33"/>

After expelling the Muslims [[Siege of Narbonne (752-759)|from Narbonne in 759]] and driving their forces back over the Pyrenees, the Carolingian king [[Pepin the Short#Expansion of the Frankish realm|Pepin the Short conquered Aquitaine]] in an eight-year war. Charlemagne followed his father by subduing Aquitaine by creating counties, taking the Church as his ally and appointing counts of Frankish or Burgundian stock, like his loyal [[William of Gellone]], making [[Toulouse]] his base for expeditions against al-Andalus.<ref name="Lewis AR 20-33"/> Charlemagne decided to organize a regional subkingdom, the [[Spanish March]], which included part of contemporary [[Catalonia]], in order to keep the Aquitanians in check and to secure the southern border of the [[Carolingian Empire]] against Muslim incursions. In 781, his three-year-old son [[Louis the Pious|Louis]] was crowned king of [[Aquitaine]], under the supervision of Charlemagne's trustee William of Gellone, and was nominally in charge of the incipient Spanish March.<ref name="Lewis AR 20-33"/>

Meanwhile, the takeover of the southern fringes of al-Andalus by Abd ar-Rahman I in 756 was opposed by [[Yusuf ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Fihri|Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman]], autonomous governor (''[[wāli]]'') or king (''malik'') of al-Andalus. Abd ar-Rahman I expelled Yusuf from Cordova,<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|pages=118–126}}</ref> but it took still decades for him to expand to the north-western Andalusian districts. He was also opposed externally by the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasids]] of Baghdad who failed in their attempts to overthrow him. In 778, Abd al-Rahman closed in on the Ebro valley. Regional lords saw the Umayyad emir at the gates and decided to enlist the nearby Christian Franks. According to [[Ali ibn al-Athir]], a Kurdish historian of the 12th century, Charlemagne received the envoys of [[Sulayman al-Arabi]], Husayn, and [[Abu Taur of Huesca|Abu Taur]] at the Diet of Paderborn in 777. These rulers of [[Zaragoza]], [[Girona]], [[Barcelona]], and [[Huesca]] were enemies of Abd ar-Rahman I, and in return for Frankish military aid against him offered their homage and allegiance.<ref name="Collins, Roger 1989 177–181">{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, US|isbn= 978-0-631-19405-7|pages=177–181}}</ref>

[[File:Spain Reconquista cities.png|thumb|Reconquista of the main towns, per year (present-day state borders)]]
Charlemagne, seeing an opportunity, agreed upon an expedition and crossed the Pyrenees in 778. Near the city of [[Zaragoza]] Charlemagne received the homage of [[Sulayman al-Arabi]]. However the city, under the leadership of [[Husayn of Zaragoza|Husayn]], closed its gates and refused to submit.<ref name="Collins, Roger 1989 177–181"/> Unable to conquer the city by force, Charlemagne decided to retreat. On the way home the rearguard of the army was ambushed and destroyed by Basque forces at the [[Battle of Roncevaux Pass]]. ''[[The Song of Roland]]'', a highly romanticised account of this battle, would later become one of the most famous {{lang|fro|[[Chanson de geste|chansons de geste]]}} of the Middle Ages. Around 788 Abd ar-Rahman I died and was succeeded by [[Hisham I of Córdoba|Hisham I]]. In 792 Hisham proclaimed a [[jihad]], advancing in 793 against the [[Kingdom of Asturias]] and Carolingian [[Septimania|Septimania (Gothia)]]. They defeated William of Gellone, Count of Toulouse, in battle, but [[William of Gellone|William]] led an expedition the following year across the eastern Pyrenees. [[Barcelona]], a major city, became a potential target for the Franks in 797, as its governor Zeid rebelled against the Umayyad emir of Córdoba. An army of the emir managed to recapture it in 799, but Louis, at the head of an army, crossed the Pyrenees and [[Siege of Barcelona (801)|besieged the city for seven months]] until it finally capitulated in 801.<ref name="Lewis AR 37-49">{{cite book|title=The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050|last=Lewis|first=Archibald R.|author-link=Archibald Ross Lewis|year=1965|publisher=The University of Texas Press|pages=37–49|access-date=28 October 2017|url=http://libro.uca.edu/lewis/sfcatsoc.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211183903/http://libro.uca.edu/lewis/sfcatsoc.htm|archive-date=11 December 2017|url-status=live}} It took place on 28 December 801.</ref>

The main passes in the Pyrenees were [[Roncesvalles]], [[Somport]] and [[La Jonquera]]. Charlemagne established across them the vassal regions of [[Pamplona]], [[Aragon]], and [[Catalonia]] respectively. Catalonia was itself formed from a number of [[Catalan counties|small counties]], including [[County of Pallars|Pallars]], [[Girona (province)|Girona]], and [[Urgell]]; it was called the ''Marca Hispanica'' by the late 8th century. They protected the eastern Pyrenees passes and shores and were under the direct control of the Frankish kings. Pamplona's first king was [[Iñigo Arista]], who allied with his Muslim kinsmen the [[Banu Qasi]] and rebelled against Frankish overlordship and overcame a [[Battle of Roncevaux Pass (824)|Carolingian expedition in 824]] that led to the setup of the [[Kingdom of Pamplona]]. Aragon, founded in 809 by [[Aznar Galíndez I|Aznar Galíndez]], grew around [[Jaca]] and the high valleys of the [[Aragon River]], protecting the old Roman road. By the end of the 10th century, Aragon, which then was just a county, was annexed by Navarre. Sobrarbe and Ribagorza were small counties and had little significance to the progress of the ''Reconquista''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archaeology |url=https://perennialpyrenees.com/category/archaeology/ |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=Perennial Pyrenees |language=en}}</ref>

In the late 9th century under [[Wilfred the Hairy, Count of Barcelona|Count Wilfred]], Barcelona became the ''de facto'' capital of the region. It controlled the other counties' policies in a union, which led in 948 to the independence of Barcelona under [[Borrell II, Count of Barcelona|Count Borrel II]], who declared that the new dynasty in France (the [[Capet]]s) were not the legitimate rulers of France nor, as a result, of his county. These states were small and, with the exception of Navarre, did not have the capacity for attacking the Muslims in the way that Asturias did, but their mountainous geography rendered them relatively safe from being conquered, and their borders remained stable for two centuries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Counts – The Origins of Catalonia |url=https://www.autentic.com/65/pid/880/Counts-The-Origins-of-Catalonia.htm |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.autentic.com}}</ref>
==Reconquista as Crusade==

{{Main|Iberian Crusades}}

[[File:Arnulfo de Areschot - Estação Martim Moniz, Lisboa.png|thumb|Stylized depiction of [[Arnout IV, Count of Aarschot]], in a [[Lisbon]] [[Martim Moniz (Lisbon Metro)|Metro station]]]]
The [[Crusade of Barbastro|1064 conquest of Barbastro]], sanctioned by [[Pope Alexander II]], was considered as a crusade rehearsal.{{Sfn|Martín|1996|p=216}} However, the mentality of the Iberian Christian rulers of the era was generally removed from ideals of defence of Christendom. The motivations for warfare against Muslims were generally more mundane: obtaining ''[[parias]]'', or loot, and rivalry with other Christians.<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Studia Zamorensia: Historica|issn=0214-736X|issue=3|year=1996|title=Reconquista y cruzada|first=José Luis|last=Martín|pages=216–217|url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/297313.pdf}}</ref> In the Castile of Alfonso VI, who was called "the lord of the three religions", parias were preferred over conquest.{{Sfn|Martín|1996|p=217}} [[Pope Urban II]] tried to prevent Iberians from going East and to engage locally in warfare against Muslims instead, conceding the same indulgences to those who were dying while fighting Saracens in the Iberian Peninsula as to those who were dying in the Holy Land.{{Sfn|Martín|1996|page=219}} Whatever the case, after early 12th century cross-pollination in the Holy Land, Iberian military orders were created in the image of the [[Templars]] and the [[Hospitallers]].{{Sfn|Martín|1996|p=220}}

At the [[First Council of the Lateran]], [[Pope Callixtus II]] declared fighting against Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula as 
part of Crusades and its participants as Crusaders having an equal spiritual standing with those in the east.<ref>Marin-Guzmán, Roberto (1992). "Crusade in Al-Andalus: The Eleventh Century formation of the Reconquista as an Ideology". Islamic Studies. 31 (3 (Autumn)): 295.</ref><ref>Crusades: Medieval Worlds in Conflict.&nbsp;United Kingdom,&nbsp;Ashgate,&nbsp;2010, p. 89</ref>

In the [[Second Crusade]] (1147–1149), after appeals by [[Afonso Henriques]] and the apparent acquiescence of [[Bernard of Clairvaux]], non-Iberian (German, Flemish, English) crusaders en route to the Holy Land played a role in the [[Siege of Lisbon|1147 conquest of Lisbon]], although it did not end up legitimised as a crusading enterprise.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Atlas of the Crusades |last=Riley-Smith |first=Jonathan |year=1990 |publisher=Facts on File |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8160-2186-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/atlasofcrusadesc00jona |url-access=registration }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Lusitania Sacra|title=Pontificado, Cruzada y Reinos de León y Castilla (siglos XII-XIII)|pages=147–148|volume=48|year=2023|first=Carlos de|last=Ayala Martínez|doi=10.34632/lusitaniasacra.2023.12115|quote=and the truth is that neither the Pope recognised the title of King to Alfonso Henriques nor granted him any bull legitimising the Crusader character of the conquest of Lisbon}}</ref> Afonso Henriques' rival cousin [[Alfonso Raimúndez]] benefited instead from the ''[[Divina dispensatione]]'' papal bull, managing to draw a Genoese and Pisan naval contingent to the [[Siege of Almería (1147)|1147 siege and conquest of Almería]].{{Sfn|Ayala Martínez|2023|pp=147–148}} The [[Siege of Tortosa (1148)|1148 conquest of Tortosa]] led by the County of Barcelona and the Common of Genoa, in which English and Flemish crusaders as well as Templars and Hospitallers took part, also enjoyed from the papal endorsement.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/efr_0223-5099_1998_act_241_1_5915|title=« ...Ad detrimendum Yspanie... ». La cruzada de Ṭurṭūša y la feudalización de la región de Ṭortosa (1148-1200)|first=Antoni|last=Virgili|journal=Publications de l'École Française de Rome  Année|year=1998|volume=241|pages=103}}</ref>

Crusade bulls were weaponised beyond direct engagement against Saracens, as [[Pope Celestine III]] sided with [[Sancho I of Portugal]] and granted him a bull in 1197 to fight against [[Alfonso IX of León]] for collaborating with Almohads, although the crusading operation did not come to fruition in the battlefield.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://publicaciones.defensa.gob.es/media/downloadable/files/links/r/h/rhm_extra_i_2018.pdf|page=258|title=Los legados pontificios y la guerra en la Península Ibérica (siglos X-XII)|first=Fernando|last=Rodamilans Ramos|journal=Revista de Historia Militar|year=2018|issn=0482-5748}}</ref>
 	
Archbishop [[Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada]] tried to internationalize the preparations for the campaign against the Almohad Caliphate that resulted into the [[Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa|1212 Battle of Las Navas]], but despite the papal indulgences by [[Pope Innocent III|Innocent III]], the event remained largely an Iberian affair on the Christian side, as almost all 'ultramontane' (trans-Pyreneean) international forces gathered for the campaign deserted before the battle.<ref>{{Cite journal|volume=51|issue=104|publisher=[[Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas]]|location=Madrid|title=«Soli Hispani»? Innocent III and Las Navas de Tolosa|first=Damian J.|last=Smith|journal=Hispania Sacra|page=491|url=https://hispaniasacra.revistas.csic.es/index.php/hispaniasacra/article/view/585/583|doi=10.3989/hs.1999.v51.i104.585|year=1999}}</ref>{{sfn|Vara Thorbeck|2005|pp=71–72}} The Catholic Church considered nonetheless the campaign a true crusade.<ref>{{Cite journal|title= Las Navas de Tolosauna batalla decisiva en la historia de España|first=Carlos|last=Vara Thorbeck|journal=Anuario. Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Telmo|issn=1887-0953|issue= 5|year=2005|page=74|url=https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/2282153.pdf}}</ref>

After his [[Siege of Cordoba (1236)|conquest of Córdoba]], [[Ferdinand III of Castile]] requested financial aid from [[Pope Gregory IX]]. The pope bestowed upon him the title of '''[[Athleta Christi]]''' besides providing him with a funding of 40,000 gold pieces per year to further his campaign. He later requested additional money, which was granted to him by [[Pope Innocent IV]]. Ferdinand went on to [[Siege of Seville|conquer Seville]] as well as several other major cities from the Islamic states, making the biggest advance yet in the Reconquista.<ref>O'Callaghan,&nbsp;Joseph F..&nbsp;Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain.&nbsp;United States,&nbsp;University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated,&nbsp;2004, p. 160
[https://books.google.com.et/books?id=CD9IdzJ4fFQC&pg=PA160&dq=Ferdinand+athleta+Christi&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwidrqq20-iPAxXH2QIHHel3Ev0QuwV6BAgKEAg#v=onepage&q&f=false]</ref>

Upon learning of the victory of the [[Conquest of Valencia (1238) | Crusade of Valencia]] under [[James I of Aragon]], [[Pope Gregory IX]] declared to "all the world": 
<blockquote>Our most dear son in Christ ... with many Catholic men, stirred by zeal for faith and signed by the sign of the cross, has ripped the Kingdom of Valencia from the hands of the pagans<ref name="auto1">O'Callaghan,&nbsp;Joseph F..&nbsp;Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain.&nbsp;United States,&nbsp;University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated,&nbsp;2013, p.105[https://www.google.com.et/books/edition/Reconquest_and_Crusade_in_Medieval_Spain/6fPSBQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=valencia+crusade&pg=PA103&printsec=frontcover]</ref></blockquote>
Emphasizing the need to protect the new conquest, the Pope also offered crusader status to those who would defend it. French King [[Louis IX]] gave King James a thorn from the [[Crown of Thorns]] relic he had in [[Sainte Chapelle]] Church.<ref name="auto1"/>

== Northern Christian realms ==
{{see also|Spain in the Middle Ages#Medieval Christian Spain|Portugal in the Middle Ages#Reconquista in Portugal}}
The northern principalities and kingdoms survived in their mountainous strongholds (see above). However, they started a definite territorial expansion south at the turn of the 10th century (Leon, Najera). The fall of the Caliphate of Cordova (1031) heralded a period of military expansion for the northern kingdoms, now divided into several mighty regional powers after the division of the Kingdom of Navarre (1035). Myriad autonomous Christian kingdoms emerged thereafter.<ref>{{cite web |title=Kingdom of Navarre |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Kingdom-of-Navarre |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=27 October 2022}}</ref>

=== Kingdom of Asturias (718–924) ===
{{Main|Kingdom of Asturias}}

{{See also|Kingdom of Galicia|Duchy of Cantabria}}
The Kingdom of Asturias was located in the [[Cantabrian Mountains]], a wet and mountainous region in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. It was the first Christian power to emerge. The kingdom was established by a Visigothic nobleman, named Pelagius (''Pelayo''), who had possibly returned after the Battle of Guadalete in 711 and was elected leader of the Asturians,<ref name="Peña p. 27">Ruiz De La Peña. La monarquia asturiana 718–910, p. 27. Cangas de Onís, 2000. {{ISBN|9788460630364}} / Fernández Conde. Estudios Sobre La Monarquía Asturiana, pp. 35–76. Estudios Históricos La Olmeda, 2015. {{ISBN|978-8497048057}}</ref> and the remnants of the ''gens Gothorum'' (the Hispano-Gothic aristocracy and the Hispano-Visigothic population who took refuge in the North). Historian Joseph F. O'Callaghan says an unknown number of them fled and took refuge in Asturias or Septimania. In Asturias they supported Pelagius's uprising, and joining with the indigenous leaders, formed a new [[aristocracy]]. 

The population of the mountain region consisted of native Astures, Galicians, Cantabri, Basques and other groups unassimilated into Hispano-Gothic society,<ref name="O'Callaghan2013176">{{cite book|author=Joseph F. O'Callaghan|title=A History of Medieval Spain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cq2dDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA176|year=2013|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-6872-8|page=176}}</ref> laying the foundations for the Kingdom of Asturias and starting the [[Astur-Leonese dynasty]] that spanned from 718 to 1037 and led the initial efforts in the Iberian peninsula to take back the territories then ruled by the Moors.<ref name="Peña p. 27"/> Although the new dynasty first ruled in the mountains of Asturias, with the capital of the kingdom established initially in [[Cangas de Onís]], and was in its dawn mostly concerned with securing the territory and settling the monarchy, the latest kings (particularly [[Alfonso III of Asturias]]) emphasised the nature of the new kingdom as heir of that in [[Visigothic Kingdom|Toledo]] and the restoration of the Visigothic nation in order to vindicate the expansion to the south.<ref>Casariego, J.E.: ''Crónicas de los reinos de Asturias y León''. Biblioteca Universitaria Everest, León 1985, p. 68. {{ASIN|B00I78R3S4}}{{ISBN missing}}</ref> However, such claims have been overall dismissed by modern historiography, emphasizing the distinct, autochthonous nature of the Cantabro-Asturian and Vasconic domains with no continuation to the Gothic Kingdom of Toledo.<ref>García Fitz, Francisco. 2009, pp. 149–150</ref>

Pelagius's kingdom initially was little more than a gathering point for the existing guerrilla forces. During the first decades, the Asturian dominion over the different areas of the kingdom was still lax, and for this reason it had to be continually strengthened through matrimonial alliances with other powerful families from the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Thus, Ermesinda, Pelagius's daughter, was married to [[Alfonso I of Asturias|Alfonso]], son of [[Duchy of Cantabria|Dux Peter of Cantabria]]. Alfonso's son [[Fruela I of Asturias|Fruela]] married Munia, a Basque from [[Álava]], after crushing a Basque uprising (probably resistance). Their son is reported to be [[Alfonso II of Asturias|Alfonso II]], while Alfonso I's daughter Adosinda married Silo, a local chief from the area of Flavionavia, Pravia.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 January 2021 |title=What was the Reconquista? – Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute |url=https://bootcampmilitaryfitnessinstitute.com/2021/01/02/what-was-the-reconquista/ |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=bootcampmilitaryfitnessinstitute.com |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Alfonso's military strategy was typical of Iberian warfare at the time. Lacking the means needed for wholesale conquest of large territories, his tactics consisted of raids in the border regions of [[Vardulia]]. With the plunder he gained further military forces could be paid, enabling him to raid the Muslim cities of [[Lisbon]], [[Zamora (Spain)|Zamora]], and [[Coimbra]]. Alfonso I also expanded his realm westwards conquering [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Callaghan |first=Joseph F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cq2dDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA176 |title=A History of Medieval Spain |year=2013 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-6872-8 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Painting of Santiago Matamoros.jpg|thumb|[[James the Great|Saint James the Great]] depicted as [[Saint James Matamoros|Saint James the Moor-slayer]]]]

During the reign of [[Alfonso II of Asturias|King Alfonso II]] (791–842), the kingdom was firmly established, and a series of Muslim raids caused the transfer of the Asturian capital to [[Oviedo]]. The king is believed to have initiated diplomatic contacts with the kings of [[Pamplona]] and the [[Carolingian]]s, thereby gaining official recognition for his kingdom and his crown from the [[Pope]] and [[Charlemagne]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 March 2022 |title=Alfonso II, Charlemagne and the Jacobean Cult (full text in Spanish) |url=http://oppidum.es/oppidum-17/opp17.12_larranaga_alfonso.ii,.carlomagno.y.el.culto.jacobeo.pdf |access-date=11 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324174530/http://oppidum.es/oppidum-17/opp17.12_larranaga_alfonso.ii,.carlomagno.y.el.culto.jacobeo.pdf |archive-date=24 March 2022 }}</ref>

The [[relic|bones]] of St. [[James the Great]] were proclaimed to have been found in Iria Flavia (present day [[Padrón]]) in 813 or probably two or three decades later. The cult of the saint was transferred later to [[Santiago de Compostela|Compostela]] (from Latin ''campus stellae'', literally "the star field"), possibly in the early 10th century when the focus of Asturian power moved from the mountains over to Leon, to become the [[Kingdom of León]] or Galicia-Leon. Santiago's were among many saint relics proclaimed to have been found across north-western Hispania. Pilgrims started to flow in from other Iberian Christian realms, sowing the seeds of the later [[Way of Saint James]] (11–12th century) that sparked the enthusiasm and religious zeal of continental [[Christian Europe]] for centuries.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Despite numerous battles, neither the Umayyads nor the Asturians had sufficient forces to secure control over these northern territories. Under the reign of [[Ramiro I of Asturias|Ramiro]], famed for the [[Battle of Clavijo]], the border began to slowly move southward and Asturian holdings in [[Castile (historical region)|Castile]], Galicia, and [[León (province)|Leon]] were fortified, and an intensive program of re-population of the countryside began in those territories. In 924 the Kingdom of Asturias became the [[Kingdom of León]], when Leon became the seat of the royal court.<ref>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1983 | title = Early Medieval Spain | publisher = St. Martin's Press |location = New York|isbn= 0-312-22464-8|page = 238}}</ref>

=== Kingdom of León (910–1230) ===
{{Main|Kingdom of León|Kingdom of Galicia|County of Portugal|Portugal in the Reconquista}}

[[Alfonso III of Asturias]] repopulated the strategically important city [[León, Spain|Leon]] and established it as his capital. King Alfonso began a series of campaigns to establish control over all the lands north of the [[Douro]] river. He reorganised his territories into the major duchies ([[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]] and Portugal) and major counties ([[Saldaña, Palencia|Saldaña]] and Castile), and fortified the borders with many castles. At his death in 910 the shift in regional power was completed as the kingdom became the [[Kingdom of León]]. From this power base, his heir [[Ordoño II of León|Ordoño II]] was able to organize attacks against [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]] and even [[Seville]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chapter Four |url=http://somosprimos.com/michaelperez/ribera4/ribera4.htm |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=somosprimos.com}}</ref>

The [[Caliphate of Córdoba]] was gaining power, and began to attack Leon. King Ordoño allied with Navarre against Abd-al-Rahman, but they were [[battle of Valdejunquera|defeated in Valdejunquera]] in 920. For the next 80 years, the Kingdom of León suffered civil wars, Moorish attack, internal intrigues and assassinations, and the partial independence of Galicia and Castile, thus delaying the reconquest and weakening the Christian forces. It was not until the following century that the Christians started to see their conquests as part of a long-term effort to restore the unity of the Visigothic kingdom.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

The only point during this period when the situation became hopeful for Leon was the reign of [[Ramiro II of León|Ramiro II]]. King Ramiro, in alliance with [[Fernán González of Castile]] and his retinue of ''caballeros villanos'', [[battle of Simancas|defeated the Caliph in Simancas]] in 939. After this battle, when the Caliph barely escaped with his guard and the rest of the army was destroyed, King Ramiro obtained 12 years of peace, but he had to give González the independence of Castile as payment for his help in the battle. After this defeat, Moorish attacks abated until [[Almanzor]] began his campaigns. [[Alfonso V of León|Alfonso V]] finally regained control over his domains in 1002. Navarre, though attacked by Almanzor, remained intact.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fernán González {{!}} count of Castile {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fernan-Gonzalez |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

The conquest of Leon did not include Galicia which was left to temporary independence after the withdrawal of the Leonese king. Galicia was conquered soon after (by Ferdinand, son of Sancho the Great, around 1038). Subsequent kings titled themselves kings of Galicia and Leon, instead of merely king of Leon as the two were in a [[personal union]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sancho III (king of Navarre) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/sancho-iii-king-navarre |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

At the end of the 11th century, King [[Alfonso VI of León and Castile|Afonso VI of León]] reached the Tagus (1085), repeating the same policy of alliances and developing collaboration with [[Franks|Frankish]] knights. The original ''[[repoblación]]'' was then complete. His aim was to create a Hispanic empire like the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] (418–720) to reclaim his hegemony over the entire [[Iberian Peninsula]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=El yermo estratégico del Desierto del Duero – Observatorio de Seguridad y Defensa |url=https://observatorio.cisde.es/archivo/el-yermo-estrategico-del-desierto-del-duero/ |access-date=19 March 2024 |language=es-ES}}</ref> Within this context, the territory between the [[Douro]] and the [[Tagus]] was repopulated and a western nucleus was formed in [[Portugal in the Middle Ages|Portugal that wanted independence]].<ref name=":02">Porto Editora – Reconquista Cristã na Infopédia [em linha]. Porto: Porto Editora. [consult. 19 March 2024 17:48:31]. Disponível em https://www.infopedia.pt/$reconquista-crista</ref> This marks the beginning of the [[Portugal in the Reconquista|Portuguese ''Repovoação'' ou ''Repovoamento'']] occurred during the reigns of the [[Portuguese House of Burgundy|House of Burgundy]] up to the middle of the thirteenth century when the [[Portugal in the Reconquista|Portuguese Reconquista]] was also brought to an end with the ultimate conquering of [[Gharb al-Andalus]] when in March 1249 the city of [[Faro, Portugal|Faro]] was conquered by [[Afonso III of Portugal]].<ref name=":12">{{Cite web |title=Reconquista Cristã |url=https://historiaonline.com/glossario/reconquista-crista/ |access-date=19 March 2024 |website=História Online |language=pt-PT}}</ref><ref name=":02" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Higounet |first=Charles |date=1953 |title=La Reconquista española y la repoblación del país. Escuela de estudios medievales, Inst. de Estudios pirenaicos |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/hispa_0007-4640_1953_num_55_2_3359_t1_0206_0000_2 |journal=Bulletin Hispanique |volume=55 |issue=2 |pages=206–208}}</ref><ref name=":32">{{Cite web |title=Reconquista española: qué fue y sus características |url=https://humanidades.com/reconquista-espanola/ |access-date=19 March 2024 |website=humanidades.com/ |language=es-ES}}</ref><ref name=":42">{{Cite web |title=Reconquista da Península Ibérica – Conheça a História |url=https://www.brasilparalelo.com.br/artigos/reconquista-da-peninsula-iberica |access-date=19 March 2024 |website=www.brasilparalelo.com.br |language=pt}}</ref>

=== Kingdom of Castile (1037–1230) ===
{{Main|Kingdom of Castile}}

[[File:Alfonso VI reconquista Toledo.JPG|thumb|20th century ceramic depiction of the [[conquest of Toledo]] by [[Alfonso VI of León and Castile|Alfonso VI]], at the [[Plaza de España, Seville|Plaza de España]]]]
[[Ferdinand I of León|Ferdinand I of Leon]] was the leading king of the mid-11th century. He conquered [[Coimbra]] and attacked the [[taifa]] kingdoms, often demanding the tributes known as [[parias]]. Ferdinand's strategy was to continue to demand parias until the taifa was greatly weakened both militarily and financially. He also repopulated the Borders with numerous ''fueros''. Following the Navarrese tradition, on his death in 1064 he divided his kingdom between his sons. His son [[Sancho II of Castile]] wanted to reunite the kingdom of his father and attacked his brothers, with a young noble at his side: Rodrigo Díaz, later known as [[El Cid Campeador]]. Sancho was killed in the siege of [[Zamora (Spain)|Zamora]] by the traitor Bellido Dolfos (also known as Vellido Adolfo) in 1072. His brother [[Alfonso VI of Castile|Alfonso VI]] took over Leon, Castile and Galicia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ferdinand I {{!}} king of Castile and Leon {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-I-king-of-Castile-and-Leon |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

Alfonso VI the Brave gave more power to the ''fueros'' and repopulated [[Segovia]], [[Ávila (province)|Ávila]] and [[Salamanca]]. Once he had secured the Borders, King Alfonso conquered the powerful [[Taifa of Toledo|Taifa kingdom of Toledo]] in 1085. [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], which was the former capital of the Visigoths, was a very important landmark, and the conquest made Alfonso renowned throughout the [[Christian world]]. However, this "conquest" was conducted rather gradually, and mostly peacefully, during the course of several decades.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alfonso VI {{!}} Biography, Facts, & Children {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfonso-VI |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> However, Toledo was not fully secured and integrated into Alfonso's kingdom until after a period of gradual resettlement and consolidation, during which Christian settlers were encouraged to move into the area.

Alfonso VI was first and foremost a tactful monarch who chose to understand the kings of taifa and employed unprecedented diplomatic measures to attain political feats before considering the use of force. He adopted the title ''[[Imperator totius Hispaniae]]'' ("Emperor of all [[Hispania]]", referring to all the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, and not just the modern country of Spain). Alfonso's more aggressive policy towards the taifas worried the rulers of those kingdoms, who called on the African [[Almoravid]]s for help.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ampuero |first=Marcelo E. Fuentes |date=May 2018 |title=An Empire of Two Religions: Muslims as Allies, Enemies, and Subjects in the Literature of the Iberian Christian Kingdoms |url=https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/215162/Fuentes_umn_0130E_19269.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230616173625/https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/215162/Fuentes_umn_0130E_19269.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |archive-date=16 June 2023 |access-date=16 June 2023}}</ref>

=== Kingdom of Pamplona / Kingdom of Navarre (824–1620) ===
{{Main|Kingdom of Navarre}}

The [[Kingdom of Pamplona]] primarily extended along either side of the Pyrenees on the Atlantic Ocean. The kingdom was formed when local leader Íñigo Arista led a revolt against the regional Frankish authority and was elected or declared King in Pamplona (traditionally in 824), establishing a kingdom inextricably linked at this stage to their kinsmen, the [[muwallad]] [[Banu Qasi]] of Tudela.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Iñigo Arista {{!}} Basque ruler {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Inigo-Arista |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

Although relatively weak until the early 11th century, Pamplona took a more active role after the accession of [[Sancho III of Pamplona|Sancho the Great]] (1004–1035). The kingdom expanded greatly under his reign, as it absorbed Castile, Leon, and what was to be Aragon, in addition to other small counties that would unite and become the [[Principality of Catalonia]]. This expansion also led to the independence of Galicia, as well as gaining overlordship over [[Gascony]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sancho III Garcés {{!}} king of Pamplona [Navarre] {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sancho-III-Garces |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

In the 12th century, however, the kingdom contracted to its core, and in 1162 King [[Sancho VI of Navarre|Sancho VI]] declared himself [[Kingdom of Navarre|king of Navarre]]. Throughout its early history, the Navarrese kingdom engaged in frequent skirmishes with the Carolingian Empire, from which it maintained its independence, a key feature of its history until 1513.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sancho VI {{!}} king of Navarre {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sancho-VI |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

=== Kingdom and Crown of Aragon (1035–1706) ===
{{Main|Kingdom of Aragon|County of Barcelona|Principality of Catalonia|Kingdom of Valencia|Kingdom of Mallorca|Crown of Aragon}}

[[File:Jaume I, Cantigas de Santa Maria, s.XIII.jpg|thumb|The Moors request permission from [[James I of Aragon]]]]

The Kingdom of Aragon started off as an offshoot of the Kingdom of Navarre. It was formed when [[Sancho III of Navarre]] decided to divide his large realm among all his sons. Aragon was the portion of the realm which passed to [[Ramiro I of Aragon]], an illegitimate son of Sancho III. The kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre were several times united in personal union until the death of [[Alfonso the Battler]] in 1135.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kingdom of Aragon {{!}} medieval kingdom, Spain {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Kingdom-of-Aragon |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 1137, the heiress of the kingdom married the [[count of Barcelona]], and their son [[Alfonso II of Aragon|Alfonso II]] ruled from 1162 the combined possessions of his parents, resulting in the composite monarchy that modern historians call the [[Crown of Aragon]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bisson |first1=Thomas N. |title=Medieval crown of Aragon : a short history |date=1986 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0191675294 |pages=31–57}}</ref> Alfonso successfully reincorporated the [[Principality of Tarragona]] into their realm, expelling the Norman [[Robert d'Aguiló|d'Aguiló]] family.<ref name="McCrank1974">{{cite book |last1=McCrank |first1=Lawrence |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/3c409e6f922c24bc1682a27b3b39d061/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y |title=Restoration and reconquest in medieval Catalonia: the church and principality of Tarragona |date=1974 |publisher=University of Virginia |pages= |access-date=24 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224124015/https://www.proquest.com/openview/3c409e6f922c24bc1682a27b3b39d061/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y |archive-date=24 February 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the following centuries, the Crown of Aragon conquered a number of territories in the Iberian peninsula and the Mediterranean, including the [[kingdom of Valencia]] and the [[kingdom of Mallorca]]. [[James I of Aragon]], also known as James the Conqueror, expanded his territories to the north, south and east. James also signed the [[Treaty of Corbeil (1258)]], in which the French king renounced to any feudal claim over Catalonia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=James I {{!}} King of Sicily & Valencia {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-I-king-of-Aragon |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

Early in his reign, James attempted to reunite the Aragonese and Navarrese crowns through a treaty with the childless [[Sancho VII of Navarre]]. But the Navarrese nobles rejected him, and chose [[Theobald IV of Champagne]] in his stead.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Later on, [[Ferdinand II of Aragon]], married [[Isabella of Castile]], leading to a dynastic union which eventually gave birth to modern Spain, after the conquest of Upper [[kingdom of Navarre|Navarre]] (Navarre south of the Pyrenees) and the [[Emirate of Granada]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |date=5 May 2023 |title=Reconquista {{!}} Definition, History, Significance, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Reconquista |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

=== Kingdom of Portugal (1139–1249) ===
{{Main|Portugal in the Reconquista}}

[[File:GeraldoGeraldesSemPavor.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Statue of Geraldo Geraldes Sem Pavor or [[Gerald the Fearless]]. A Portuguese folk hero with the head of a Moor]]

In 1139, after an overwhelming victory in the [[Battle of Ourique]] against the [[Almoravid dynasty|Almoravids]], [[Afonso Henriques]] was proclaimed the first [[List of Portuguese monarchs|King of Portugal]] by his troops. According to the legend, Christ announced from heaven{{Citation needed|date=May 2017}} Afonso's great deeds, whereby he would establish the first [[Portuguese Cortes]] at [[Lamego]] and be crowned by the [[Primate (bishop)|Primate]] [[Archbishop of Braga]]. In 1142 a group of Anglo-Norman crusaders on their way to the Holy Land helped King Afonso Henriques in a failed [[Siege of Lisbon (1142)]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://doi.org/10.5699/portstudies.29.1.0007|doi = 10.5699/portstudies.29.1.0007|title = Revisiting the Anglo-Norman Crusaders' Failed Attempt to Conquer Lisbon ''c.'' 1142|year = 2013|last1 = Lucas Villegas-Aristizábal|journal = Portuguese Studies|volume = 29|page = 7|url-access = subscription}}</ref> In the [[Treaty of Zamora]] in 1143, [[Alfonso VII of León and Castile|Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile]] recognized Portuguese independence from the Kingdom of León.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sutori |url=https://www.sutori.com/en/story/the-siege-of-lisbon--KAPho8TyiMUT3bxY4w4YJisU |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.sutori.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 1147, Portugal [[Conquest of Santarém|captured Santarém]], and seven months later the city of Lisbon was also brought under Portuguese control after the [[Siege of Lisbon]]. By the papal bull [[Manifestis Probatum]], [[Pope Alexander III]] recognized Afonso Henriques as King of Portugal in 1179.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Battle of Lisbon {{!}} Summary {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Siege-of-Lisbon |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

With [[Portugal]] finally recognized as an independent kingdom by its neighbors, [[Afonso Henriques]] and his successors, aided by [[Crusades|Crusaders]] and the military monastic orders the [[Knights Templar]], the [[Order of Aviz]] or the [[Order of Saint James of the Sword|Order of Saint James]], pushed the [[Moors]] to the [[Algarve]] on the southern coast of Portugal. After several campaigns, the Portuguese part in the ''Reconquista'' came to an end with the definitive [[Portuguese Conquest of Algarve|capture of the Algarve]] in 1249. With all of Portugal now under the control of [[Afonso III of Portugal]], religious, cultural and ethnic groups became gradually homogenized.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

[[File:Cross of the Military Order of Christ.svg|thumb|upright=0.8|Cross of the [[Order of Christ (Portugal)|Order of Christ]]]]

After the completion of the ''Reconquista'', the Portuguese territory was a Roman Catholic realm. Nonetheless, [[Denis of Portugal]] carried out a short war with [[Crown of Castile|Castile]] for possession of the towns of [[Serpa]] and [[Moura Municipality|Moura]]. After this, Denis avoided war. In 1297, he signed the [[Treaty of Alcanizes]] with [[Ferdinand IV of Castile]], establishing a permanent border between the two kingdoms.<ref>Juan-Manuel Trillo-Santamaría & Valerià Paül, 'The Oldest Boundary in Europe? A Critical Approach to the Spanish-Portuguese Border: The ''Raia'' Between Galicia and Portugal', ''Geopolitics'', 19:1, 161–181 [167]</ref>

During the suppression of the Knights Templar all over Europe, under the influence of [[Philip IV of France]] and [[Pope Clement V]] requesting its annihilation by 1312, King Denis reinstituted the Templars of [[Tomar]] as the [[Order of Christ (Portugal)|Order of Christ]] in 1319. Denis believed that the Order's assets should by their nature stay in any given Order instead of being taken by the King, largely for the Templars' contribution to the ''Reconquista'' and the reconstruction of Portugal after the wars.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Archives |first=The National |date=29 November 2014 |title=The National Archives – The Templars' 'curse' on the King of France |url=https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/templars-curse-king-france/ |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=The National Archives blog |language=en-GB}}</ref>

The experience gained during the battles of the ''Reconquista'' was fundamental to [[Conquest of Ceuta]],<ref name="auto"/> the first step to the establishment of the [[Portuguese Empire]]. Likewise, the contact with [[Islamic Golden Age|Muslim's navigation techniques and sciences]] enabled the creation of [[Portuguese Renaissance|Portuguese nautical innovations]] such as the [[caravel]] – the principal Portuguese ship during their voyages of exploration in the [[Age of Discovery]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hobson|first1=John M.|title=The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation|date=2004|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0521547246|page=141|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQN85hrJyT4C&pg=PA141|language=en}}</ref>

=== Minor Christian realms ===
Minor Christian realms were the [[Kingdom of Viguera]] (970–1005), the [[Lordship of Albarracín]] (1167–1300), the [[Principality of Tarragona]] (1129–1173), and the [[:es:Señorío de Valencia|Principality of Valencia]] (1094–1102).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Battle of Valencia {{!}} Summary {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Valencia |access-date=16 June 2023 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

== Southern Islamic realms ==
{{Further|al-Andalus}}
{{sources|section|date=October 2025}}
=== Umayyads ===
{{Main|Emirate of Córdoba|Caliphate of Córdoba}}

During the 9th century the Berbers returned to North Africa in the aftermath of revolts. Many governors of large cities distant from the capital, Córdoba, had planned to establish their independence. Then, in 929, the [[Emir of Córdoba]] ([[Abd-ar-Rahman III]]), the leader of the Umayyad dynasty, declared himself [[Caliph]], independent from the [[Abbasid]]s in [[Baghdad]]. He took all the military, religious, and political power and reorganised the army and the bureaucracy.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

After regaining control over the dissident governors, Abd-ar-Rahman III tried to conquer the remaining Christian kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, attacking them several times and forcing them back beyond the [[Cantabrian Mountains]]. Abd-ar-Rahman's grandson later became a puppet in the hands of the great [[Vizier]] [[Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir|Almanzor]] (''al-Mansur'', "the victorious"). Almanzor waged several campaigns attacking and sacking [[Burgos]], Leon, [[Pamplona]], [[Barcelona]], and [[Santiago de Compostela]] before his death in 1002.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== ''Taifas'' ===
{{Main|Taifa}}

[[File:MoorsinIberia.jpg|thumb|Depiction of the Moors in Iberia, from ''The Cantigas de Santa Maria'']]
Between Almanzor's death and 1031, al-Andalus suffered many civil wars, which ended in the division into the [[Taifa|''taifa'' kingdoms]]. The taifas were small kingdoms, established by the city governors. The result was many (up to 34) small kingdoms, each centered upon its capital. Their governors had no larger-scale vision of the Moorish presence in the Iberian peninsula and had no qualms about attacking their neighbouring kingdoms whenever they could gain advantage by doing so.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

The split into the taifa states weakened the Islamic presence, and the Christian kingdoms further advanced as [[Alfonso VI of León and Castile|Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile]] conquered [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]] in 1085. Surrounded by enemies, taifa rulers sent a desperate appeal to the Berber chieftain [[Yusuf ibn Tashfin]], leader of the Almoravids.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} ''Taifas'' reemerged when the Almoravid dynasty collapsed in the 1140s, and again when the Almohad Caliphate declined in the 1220s.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Almoravids ===
{{Main|Almoravid dynasty}}

[[File:Mapa reconquista almohades-en.svg|thumb|Extent of the ''Reconquista'' into Almohad territory as of 1157]]
[[File:Capture de Séville par Ferdinand III.jpg|thumb|Capture of Seville by [[Ferdinand III of Castile]] (painted by [[Francisco Pacheco]])]]
The [[Almoravid]]s were a Muslim militia composed of Berbers, and unlike previous Muslim rulers, they were not so tolerant towards Christians and Jews. Their armies entered the Iberian peninsula on several occasions (1086, 1088, 1093) and defeated King Alfonso at the [[Battle of Sagrajas]] in 1086, but initially their purpose was to unite all the taifas into a single Almoravid Caliphate. Their actions halted the southward expansion of the Christian kingdoms. Their only defeat came at [[Valencia]] in 1094, due to the actions of [[El Cid]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Meanwhile, Navarre lost all importance under King [[Sancho IV of Navarre|Sancho IV]], for he lost Rioja to [[Sancho II of Castile]], and nearly became the vassal of Aragon. At his death, the Navarrese chose as their king [[Sancho Ramírez]], King of Aragon, who thus became Sancho V of Navarre and I of Aragon. Sancho Ramírez gained international recognition for Aragon, uniting it with Navarre and expanding the borders south, conquering ''Wasqa<sup>t</sup>'' [[Huesca]] deep in the valleys in 1096 and building a fort, El Castellar, 25&nbsp;km from ''Saraqusta<sup>t</sup>'' [[Zaragoza]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Catalonia came under intense pressure from the taifas of Zaragoza and [[Taifa of Lérida|Lérida]], as well as from internal disputes, as Barcelona suffered a dynastic crisis that led to open war among the smaller counties. But by the 1080s, the situation had calmed down, and the dominion of Barcelona over the smaller counties was restored.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Almohads ===
{{Main|Almohad Caliphate}}

[[File:La Rendición de Granada - Pradilla.jpg|thumb|''The Surrender of Granada'' by [[Francisco Pradilla Ortiz]]]]
After a brief period of disintegration (the second [[Taifa]] period), the Almohads, the rising power in North Africa, took over most of ''al-Andalus''. However they were decisively defeated at the [[Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa]] (1212) by a Christian coalition, losing almost all the remaining lands of ''al-Andalus'' in the following decades. By 1252 only the [[Emirate of Granada]] remained intact but as a vassal state of Castile.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Granada War and the end of Muslim rule ===
{{Main|Granada War|Treaty of Granada (1491)}}

[[Catholic Monarchs|Ferdinand and Isabella]] completed the ''Reconquista'' with a war against the [[Emirate of Granada]] that started in 1482 and ended with Granada's surrender on 2 January 1492. The Moors in Castile previously numbered "half a million within the realm". By 1492 some 100,000 had died or been enslaved, 200,000 had emigrated, and 200,000 remained in Castile. Many of the Muslim elite, including Granada's former Emir [[Muhammad XII of Granada|Muhammad XII]], who had been given the area of the [[Alpujarras]] mountains as a principality, found life under Christian rule intolerable and emigrated to [[Fez, Morocco|Fez]] in North Africa.{{sfn |Kamen |2005 |pages=37–38}}<ref name=maqri>"نفح الطيب من غصن الاندلس الرطيب" p. 1317.  احمد المقري  المغربي المالكي الاشعري</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Harvey|first=Leonard Patrick|title=Islamic Spain, 1250 to 1500|url={{Google books|td3tcLWvSNkC|page=327|plainurl=yes}}|page=327|publisher=University of Chicago Press|place=Chicago|year=1992|isbn=0-226-31962-8}}</ref>

In 1497, Spanish forces took [[Melilla]], west of Oran, and the island of [[Djerba]], south of Tunis, and went on to more important gains, with the bloody [[Spanish conquest of Oran (1509)|seizure of Oran in 1509]], and the capture of [[Bougie]] and [[Spanish conquest of Tripoli (1510)|Tripoli in 1510]]. The Spanish capture of [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]] cost them some 300 men, while the inhabitants suffered between 3,000 and 5,000 killed and another 5,000–6,000 carried off as slaves.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Last Great Muslim Empires|page=138}}</ref> Soon thereafter, however, they faced competition from the rapidly expanding [[Ottoman Empire]] in the east and were pushed back.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Davison |first=Derek |title=Today in European history: the 'Reconquista' ends (1492) |url=https://fx.substack.com/p/today-in-european-history-the-reconquista |access-date=13 September 2022 |website=fx.substack.com |language=en}}</ref>

== Infighting ==
=== Christian infighting ===
Clashes and raids on bordering Andalusian lands did not keep the Christian kingdoms from battling among themselves or allying with Muslim kings.<ref name="Keefe"/> Some Muslim kings had Christian-born wives or mothers.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}} Some Christian mercenaries, like [[El Cid]], were contracted by [[taifa]] kings to fight against their neighbours.<ref name="Keefe"/> Indeed, El Cid's first battle experience was gained fighting for a Muslim state against a Christian state.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022|reason=Which battle is this? If it's Graus, was he in service of Castile or Zaragoza? What about the 1057 Castilian siege of Zaragoza?}} At the [[Battle of Graus]] in 1063, he and other Castilians fought on the side of [[Ahmad al-Muqtadir|al-Muqtadir]], Muslim [[sultan]] of [[Zaragoza]], against the forces of [[Ramiro I of Aragon]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022 |reason=Was he in service of Castile or Zaragoza?}} There is even an instance of a crusade being declared against another Christian king in Hispania.<ref name="O'Callaghan201362">Joseph O'Callaghan (2003). ''Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain'', Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press. p.&nbsp;62.</ref> Although Christian rulers [[Fernán González of Castile]] and [[Ramiro II of León]] had cooperated to defeat the Muslims at the [[Battle of Simancas]] (939), Fernán attacked Ramiro soon after and the Leonese–Castilian war that followed lasted until Ramiro's victory in 944.<ref name="Whitney">{{Cite book |last1=Whitney |first1=James Pounder |editor-last1=Gwatkin |editor-first1=Henry Melvill |date=1922 |title=The Cambridge Medieval History: Maps III. Germany and the Western Empire. 3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=exuwlXT-ys0C&pg=PT338 |location= |publisher=Plantagenet Publishing |page=338 |isbn=978-0521045346 |access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref> Ramiro II's death caused the war of the Leonese succession (951–956) between his sons, and the winner [[Ordoño III of León]] concluded peace with caliph [[Abd al-Rahman III]] of Córdoba.<ref name="Whitney"/>
[[File:Map Iberian Peninsula 1037-en.svg|thumb|300px|A map of Christian realms in the north and Islamic ''taifas'' in the south (1037). During the ''Reconquista'', the Iberian states not only fought along religious lines, but also amongst themselves and internally, especially during [[war of succession|wars of succession]] and clan feuds.]]
After the defeat of [[Alfonso VIII]], King of Castile, at [[Battle of Alarcos|Alarcos]], Kings [[Alfonso IX]] of Leon and [[Sancho VII]] of Navarre entered an alliance with the [[Almohad Caliphate|Almohads]] and invaded Castile in 1196.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}} By the end of the year Sancho VII had dropped out of the war under Papal pressure. Early in 1197, at the request of [[Sancho I of Portugal|Sancho I]], King of Portugal, Pope [[Celestine III]] declared a crusade against Alfonso IX and released his subjects from their responsibilities to the king, declaring that "the men of his realm shall be absolved from their fidelity and his dominion by authority of the apostolic see."<ref name="O'Callaghan2013" /> Together the Kings of Portugal, Castile, and [[Kingdom of Aragon|Aragon]] invaded Leon. In the face of this onslaught combined with pressure from the Pope, Alfonso IX was finally forced to sue for peace in October 1197.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

In the late years of ''al-Andalus'', Castile had the might to conquer the remnants of the kingdom of [[Granada]], but the kings preferred to wait and claim the tribute of the Muslim ''[[parias]]''. The trade of Granadan goods and the parias were a major means by which African gold entered [[medieval Europe]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Muslim infighting ===
Similarly, there was frequent Muslim infighting throughout the existence of al-Andalus. The [[Abbasid Revolution]] (747–750) divided Muslim rulers in Iberia into the pro-[[Abbasid Caliphate]] faction (based in [[Baghdad]]) and the pro-[[Umayyad Caliphate|Umayyad faction]] (reconstituted as the [[Emirate of Córdoba]]).<ref>{{cite book |last=Ullidtz |first=Per |date=2014 |title=1016: The Danish Conquest of England |location=Copenhagen |publisher=Books on Demand |isbn=978-87-7145-720-9 |url={{GBurl|kXGaAwAAQBAJ|page=132}} |page=132}}</ref> [[Charlemagne]]'s failed [[Abbasid-Carolingian Alliance#Military alliance in Spain (777–778)|778 campaign into Iberia]] was prompted by the invitation of the pro-Abbasid governor of Barcelona, [[Sulayman al-Arabi]], which led to a brief [[Abbasid-Carolingian Alliance]] against the Umayyads.{{sfn|Ullidtz|2014|p=132}} During the [[Fitna of al-Andalus]] (1009–1031), the Umayyad-run [[Caliphate of Córdoba]] fell apart into rival [[taifa]]s headed by Islamic emirs warring each other.<ref>{{cite book|title=Europe and the Islamic World: A History|year=2013|publisher=Princeton University press|last=Tolan|first=John|place=Princeton|pages= 39–40}}</ref> After the Christian king of Castile and León [[History of Toledo, Spain#Medieval Toledo after the Reconquest|conquered Toledo]] in 1085, the emirs requested [[Yusuf ibn Tashfin]], leader of the strict Islamic [[Almoravid dynasty|Almoravid]] sect, to come to their defence, which he did at the [[Battle of Sagrajas]] (1086). However, Yusuf soon turned on the Muslim emirs of Spain, defeating them all and conquering their lands by 1091.<ref>''Encarta Winkler Prins Encyclopaedia'' (1993–2002) s.v. "Almoraviden §2. Verbreiding". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.</ref> A similar scenario occurred in 1147–1157, when the Almoravid dynasty fell, a [[Second Taifas period]] happened, and the Muslim-controlled cities of al-Andalus were conquered by the new [[Almohad Caliphate]].<ref>''Encarta Winkler Prins Encyclopaedia'' (1993–2002) s.v. "Almohaden §2. Machtsuitbreiding". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.</ref> The [[Nasrid dynasty#Historical background|War of the Granada succession]] (1482–1492) took place after the deposition of emir [[Abu'l-Hasan Ali of Granada]] by his son [[Muhammad XII of Granada]]; the deposed emir's brother [[Muhammad XIII of Granada]] also joined the fight. This succession conflict took place simultaneously with the [[Granada War]], and was ended only by the Castilian conquest in 1492.<ref>''Encarta Winkler Prins Encyclopaedia'' (1993–2002) s.v. "Boabdil". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.</ref>

==Christian repopulation==
{{Further|Medieval demography|Repoblación}}
The ''Reconquista'' was a process not only of war and conquest, but also of [[colonization|repopulation]]. Christian kings moved their own people to locations abandoned by Muslims in order to have a population capable of defending the borders. The main repopulation areas were the [[Douro]] Basin (the northern plateau), the high [[Ebro]] valley ([[La Rioja (Spain)|La Rioja]]) and central [[Catalonia]]. The repopulation of the [[Douro]] Basin took place in two distinct phases. North of the river, between the 9th and 10th centuries, the "pressure" (or ''presura'') system was employed. South of the [[Douro]], in the 10th and 11th centuries, the ''presura'' led to the "charters" (''[[foral|forais]]'' or ''[[fueros]]''). ''Fueros'' were used even south of the Central Range.<ref>{{Citation | title=Beyond the Reconquista: New Directions in the History of Medieval Iberia | chapter= The Life and Death of an Historiographical Folly: The Early Medieval Depopulation and Repopulation of the Duero Basin| date= 3 April 2020| pages= 21–51| publisher= Brill| doi= 10.1163/9789004423879_003| hdl= 10261/238570| isbn= 9789004423879| s2cid= 218803277| url= https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004423879/BP000003.xml| hdl-access= free| last1= Viso| first1= Julio Escalona| last2= Martín| first2= Iñaki| url-access= subscription}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=This source says repopulation is a myth.|date=June 2023}}

The ''presura'' referred to a group of peasants who crossed the mountains and settled in the abandoned lands of the Douro Basin. Asturian laws promoted this system, for instance granting a peasant all the land he was able to work and defend as his own property. Of course, Asturian and Galician minor nobles and clergymen sent their own expeditions with the peasants they maintained. This led to very feudalised areas, such as [[León (province)|Leon]] and Portugal, whereas Castile, an arid land with vast plains and harsh climate, only attracted peasants with no hope in Biscay. As a consequence, Castile was governed by a single count, but had a largely non-feudal territory with many [[wikt:freeman|free]] peasants. ''Presuras'' also appear in Catalonia, when the count of Barcelona ordered the Bishop of Urgell and the count of Gerona to repopulate the plains of [[Vic, Barcelona|Vic]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

During the 10th century and onwards, cities and towns gained more importance and power, as commerce reappeared and the population kept growing. ''[[Fuero]]s'' were [[charter]]s documenting the privileges and usages given to all the people repopulating a town. The ''fueros'' provided a means of escape from the [[feudal system]], as ''fueros'' were only granted by the monarch. As a result, the town council was dependent on the monarch alone and, in turn, was required to provide ''auxilium''—aid or troops—for their monarch. The military force of the towns became the ''caballeros villanos''. The first ''fuero'' was given by count [[Fernán González]] to the inhabitants of [[Castrojeriz]] in the 940's. The most important towns of medieval Hispania had ''fueros'', or ''forais''. In Navarre, ''fueros'' were the main repopulating system. Later on, in the 12th century, Aragon also employed the system; for example, the ''fuero'' of [[Teruel]], which was one of the last fueros, in the early 13th century.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

From the mid-13th century on, no more charters were granted, as the demographic pressure had disappeared and other means of re-population were created. ''Fueros'' remained as city charters until the 18th century in Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia and until the 19th century in Castile and Navarre. ''Fueros'' had an immense importance for those living under them, who were prepared to go to war to defend their rights under the charter. In the 19th century, the abolition of the ''fueros'' in Navarre would be one of the causes of the [[Carlist Wars]]. In Castile, disputes over the system contributed to the war against Charles I ([[Castilian War of the Communities]]).{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

== Christian military culture ==
=== Non-religious motives ===
[[File:Orders of knighthood Iberia.svg|thumb|260px|Territories of the [[Orders, decorations, and medals of Spain|military orders of the Iberian kingdoms]] towards the end of 15th century]]
[[Jim Bradbury]] (2004) noted that the Christian belligerents in the ''Reconquista'' were not all equally motivated by religion, and that a distinction should be made between 'secular rulers' on the one hand, and on the other hand Christian military orders which came from elsewhere (including the three main orders of [[Knights Templar]], [[Knights Hospitaller]] and [[Teutonic Knights]]), or were [[Orders, decorations, and medals of Spain|established inside Iberia]] (such as those of [[Order of Santiago|Santiago]], [[Order of Alcántara|Alcántara]] and [[Order of Calatrava|Calatrava]]).{{sfn|Bradbury|2004|p=314}} '[The Knights] were more committed to [[religious war]] than some of their secular counterparts, were opposed to treating with Muslims and carried out raids and even atrocities, such as decapitating Muslim prisoners.'{{sfn|Bradbury|2004|p=314}}

On the other hand, Christian armies sometimes forged temporary alliances with Islamic emirs, and Christian mercenaries were quite willing to fight for Arab and Berber rulers if the price was right.<ref name="Keefe">{{Cite book |last1=Keefe |first1=Eugene K. |date=1976 |title=Area Handbook for Spain |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6uSWE3EYvBkC&pg=PA105 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=105 |isbn=978-0160015670 |access-date=7 April 2022}}</ref> [[El Cid]] is a well-known example of a Christian mercenary leader who was in [[El Cid#Moorish service|paid military service of the Islamic kings of Zaragoza for years]].<ref name="Keefe"/> Mercenaries were an important factor, as many kings did not have enough soldiers available. [[Norsemen]], [[Flemings|Flemish]] spearmen, Frankish knights, Moorish mounted archers (archers who travelled on horseback), and Berber light cavalry were the main types of mercenaries available and used in the conflict.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Christian cavalry and infantry ===
{{unreferenced section|date=June 2021}}
Medieval Christian armies mainly comprised two types of forces: the cavalry (mostly nobles, but including commoner knights from the 10th century on) and the infantry, or ''peones'' (peasants). Infantry only went to war if needed, which was not frequent. In an atmosphere of constant conflict, warfare and daily life were strongly intertwined during this period. These armies reflected the need for society to be on constant alert during the first chapters of the Reconquista. These forces were capable of moving long distances in short times.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}
[[File:Escudo de Alcanadre-La Rioja.svg|thumb|160px|Coat of arms of [[Alcanadre]]. [[La Rioja (Spain)|La Rioja]], Spain, depicting heads of slain Moors]]
[[Cavalry tactics]] in Hispania involved knights approaching the enemy, throwing [[javelin]]s, then withdrawing to a safe distance before commencing another assault. Once the enemy formation was sufficiently weakened, the knights charged with thrusting [[spear]]s ([[lance]]s did not arrive in Hispania until the 11th century). There were three types of knights (''caballeros''): royal knights, noble knights (''caballeros [[Hidalgo (nobility)|hidalgos]]''), and commoner knights ([[Caballero villano|''caballeros villanos'']], or "mounted soldier from a [[Villa#Post-Roman era|villa]]"). Royal knights were mainly nobles with a close relationship with the king, and thus claimed a direct Gothic inheritance.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Royal knights in the early stages of the Reconquista were equipped with mail [[hauberk]], kite shield, a long [[sword]] (designed to fight from the horse), javelins, spears and an [[francisca|axe]]. Noble knights came from the ranks of the ''infanzones'' or lower nobles, whereas the commoner knights were not noble but were wealthy enough to afford a horse. Uniquely in Europe, these horsemen comprised a militia cavalry force with no feudal links, being under the sole control of the king or the count of [[Kingdom of Castile|Castile]] because of ''[[fueros]]'' (charters) with the crown. Both noble and common knights wore padded armour and carried javelins, spears and round-tasselled shield (influenced by Moorish shields), as well as a sword.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

The ''peones'' were [[peasants]] who went to battle in service of their [[feudal]] lord. Poorly equipped, with bows and arrows, spears and short swords, they were mainly used as auxiliary troops. Their function in battle was to contain the enemy troops until the cavalry arrived and to block the enemy infantry from charging the knights. The [[longbow]], the [[composite bow]], and the [[crossbow]] were the basic types of bows and were especially popular in the infantry.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Equipment ===
In the early Middle Ages in Hispania, armour was typically made of leather, with iron scales. Head protections consisted of a round helmet with nose protector (influenced by the designs used by [[Viking]]s, who attacked during the 8th and 9th centuries) and a chain mail headpiece. Shields were often round or kidney-shaped, except for the kite-shaped designs used by the royal knights. Usually adorned with geometric designs, crosses or tassels, shields were made out of wood and had a leather cover.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Steel swords were the most common weapon. The cavalry used long double-edged swords and the infantry short, single-edged ones. Guards were either semicircular or straight, but always highly ornamented with geometrical patterns. Spears and javelins were up to 1.5 metres long and had an iron tip. The double-axe—made of iron, 30&nbsp;cm long, and possessing an extremely sharp edge—was designed to be equally useful as a thrown weapon or in close combat. Maces and hammers were not common, but some specimens have remained and are thought to have been used by members of the cavalry.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Technological changes ===

This style of warfare remained dominant in the Iberian Peninsula until the late 11th century, when lance tactics entered from France, although the traditional horse javelin-shot techniques continued to be used. In the 12th and 13th centuries, soldiers typically carried a sword, a lance, a javelin, and either bow and arrows or crossbow and darts/bolts. Armor consisted of a coat of mail over a quilted jacket, extending at least to the knees, a helmet or iron cap, and bracers protecting the arms and thighs, either metal or leather.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

[[File:Batalla de las Navas de Tolosa, por Francisco van Halen.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|The [[Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa]] (1212), an important turning point of the Reconquista]]

Shields were round or triangular, made of wood, covered with leather, and protected by an iron band; the shields of knights and nobles would bear the family's coat of arms. Knights rode in both the Muslim style, ''a la jineta'' (i.e. the equivalent of a modern jockey's seat), a short stirrup strap and bended knees allowed for better control and speed, or in the French style, ''a la brida'', a long stirrup strap allowed for more security in the saddle (i.e. the equivalent of the modern cavalry seat, which is more secure) when acting as heavy cavalry. Horses were occasionally fitted with a coat of mail as well.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Around the 14th and 15th centuries heavy cavalry gained a predominant role, including knights wearing full plate armor.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

==Conversions and expulsions==
{{Main|Treaty of Granada (1491)|Alhambra decree|Expulsion of the Moriscos|Forced conversions of Muslims in Spain|Persecution of Jews and Muslims by Manuel I of Portugal}}

[[File:Higueruela.jpg|thumb|Forces of [[Muhammed IX, Sultan of Granada|Muhammed IX]], [[Nasrid dynasty|Nasrid]] Sultan of [[Granada]], at the [[Battle of La Higueruela]], 1431]]

The new Christian hierarchy demanded heavy taxes from non-Christians and gave them rights, such as in the [[Treaty of Granada (1491)]] only for Moors in recently Islamic Granada. On 30 July 1492, all the Jewish community—some 200,000 people—were forcibly expelled.<ref>[https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/expulsion.html "Modern Jewish History: The Spanish Expulsion (1492)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151115135151/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/expulsion.html |date=15 November 2015 }}, ''The Jewish Virtual Library''.</ref> The next year, the [[Alhambra decree]] ordered the expulsion of practicing Jews, leading many of them to convert to Catholicism. In 1502, Queen Isabella I declared that conversion to Catholicism was compulsory within the Kingdom of Castile. [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor Charles V]] imposed the same religious requirement on Moors in the Kingdom of Aragon in 1526, forcing its Muslim population to convert during the [[Revolt of the Germanies]].<ref name = "Tofiño">[http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v06/tofino.html Censorship and Book Production in Spain During the Age of the Incunabula] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061118072214/http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/ciberletras/v06/tofino.html |date=18 November 2006 }}, Ignacio Tofiño-Quesada. Graduate Center, CUNY.</ref>

=== Spanish Inquisition ===
{{Main|Spanish Inquisition}}

Making things more complex were the many former Muslims and Jews known as ''[[Morisco]]s'', ''[[Marrano]]s'', and ''[[Converso]]s'', who shared ancestors in common with many Christians, especially among the aristocracy, causing much concern over loyalty and attempts by the aristocracy to hide their non-Christian ancestry. Some—the numbers are debated—continued to secretly practice their religions and use their languages well into the sixteenth century.<ref>{{cite book
|title=Los estatutos de limpieza de sangre : controversias entre los siglos XV y XVII
|first=Albert A.
|last=Sicroff
|publisher=[[Juan de la Cuesta]]
|year=2010
|isbn=978-1588711779
|quote=First published in French in 1960}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
|first=William
|last=Childers
|title= 'Según es cristiana la gente': The Quintanar of ''Persiles y Sigismunda'' and the Archival Record
|journal=[[Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America]]
|volume=24
|number=2
|year=2004
|pages=5–41
|doi=10.3138/Cervantes.24.2.005
|s2cid=160282260
|url=https://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/cervante/csa/articf04/childers.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705071410/https://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/cervante/csa/articf04/childers.pdf
|archive-date=5 July 2010
}}</ref> Those that the [[Spanish Inquisition]] found to be secretly practicing Islam or Judaism were executed, imprisoned, or exiled.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Nevertheless, all those deemed to be "New Christians" were repeatedly suspected of various [[treason|crimes against the Spanish state]], including continued practice of Islam or Judaism. New Christians were subject to many discriminatory practices starting in the sixteenth century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bethencourt |first1=Francisco |title=Racisms: From the Crusades to the Twentieth Century |date=2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-16975-0 |page=153 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S26YDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA153 |language=en}}</ref>

==Classifications and later consequences==
[[File:Pedro Berruguete Saint Dominic Presiding over an Auto-da-fe 1495.jpg|thumb|[[Saint Dominic]] presiding over an ''[[auto-da-fé]]'', by [[Pedro Berruguete]] (around 1495)<ref name="Prado">[http://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/saint-dominic-presides-over-an-auto-da-fe/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151202185058/https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/saint-dominic-presides-over-an-auto-da-fe/|date=2 December 2015}} at [[Museo del Prado|Prado Museum]]</ref>]]
The many advances and retreats created several social types:{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}
* The ''[[Muwallad]]'': native Iberians under Islamic rule who converted to Islam after the arrival of the Muslim Arabs and Berbers.
* The ''[[Mozarab]]s'': Christians in Muslim-held lands. Some of them migrated to the north of the peninsula in times of persecution bringing elements of the styles, food and agricultural practices learned from the Andalusians, while they continued practicing their Christianity with older forms of Catholic worship and their own versions of the [[Latin]] language.
* "[[New Christians]]": Jews converting to Christianity called ''[[conversos]]'', or pejoratively ''[[Marrano]]s''. Jews converted to Christianity voluntarily or through force. Some were [[Crypto-Jews]] who continued practicing [[Judaism]] secretly. All remaining Jews were expelled from Spain as a consequence of the 1492 [[Alhambra Decree]], and from Portugal in 1497. Former Jews were subject to the [[Spanish Inquisition|Spanish]] and [[Portuguese Inquisition]]s, established to enforce Christian faith and practice, which often resulted in secret investigations and public punishments of ''conversos'' in [[auto-da-fé|autos-da-fé]] ("acts of faith"), often public executions by burning the victim alive<ref>
The exact number of people executed by the Inquisition is not known. [[Juan Antonio Llorente]] gave the following numbers for the Inquisition: 31,912 burnt, 17,696 [[Effigy|burnt in effigy]], and 291,450 reconciled ''de vehementi'' (i.e., following an act of penance) (Roth 1964:123). [[José Amador de los Ríos]] gave even higher numbers, between the years 1484 and 1525 alone: 28,540 burnt in person, 16,520 burnt in effigy and 303,847 penanced (Roth1964).<br>However, after extensive examinations of archival records, modern scholars provide lower estimates, indicating that fewer than 10,000 were actually executed during the whole history of the Spanish Inquisition (Dedieu, p. 85; Perez, pp. 170–173.), perhaps around 3,000 (Monter, p. 53.).</ref>
* The ''[[Mudéjar]]'': Muslims in Christian-held lands.
* ''[[Morisco]]s'': Muslim ''conversos''. Muslims who converted to Catholicism. A significant number were Crypto-Muslims who continued practicing Islam secretly. They ranged from successful skilled artisans, valued and protected in Aragon, to impoverished peasants in Castile. After the Alhambra Decree the entire Islamic population was forced to convert or leave, and at the beginning of the seventeenth century a significant number were expelled in the [[expulsion of the Moriscos]].

==Legacy==
{{See also|History of Spain|History of Portugal|Portugal in the period of discoveries}}

Since the 19th century, traditional Western and especially Iberian [[historiography]] has stressed the existence of the ''Reconquista'',<ref name=":3">{{harvnb|García Fitz|2009|p=146}} "Queda claro, pues, que el concepto de Reconquista, tal como surgió en el siglo XIX y se consolidó en la historiografía de la primera mitad del XX, se convirtió en uno de los principales mitos originarios alumbrados por el nacionalismo español. [It is clear, then, that the concept of Reconquista, as it emerged in the 19th century and was consolidated in the historiography of the first half of the 20th, became one of the principal origin myths illuminated by Spanish nationalism.]"</ref> a continual phenomenon by which the Christian Iberian kingdoms opposed and conquered the Muslim kingdoms, understood as a common enemy who had militarily seized territory from native Iberian Christians.<ref name="O'Callaghan2013" /> However, modern scholarship has challenged this concept of a "reconquista" as a [[national myth]] tied to Spanish nationalism.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Federico. |first=Ríos Saloma, Martín |title=La reconquista: una construcción historiográfica: siglos XVI–XIX |year=2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVpor72daAEC&pg=PA26 |isbn=978-84-92820-47-4 |oclc=800884696 |page=26|publisher=Marcial Pons Historia }}</ref><ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last1=Escalona |first1=Julio |last2= Viso |first2=Iñaki Martín |editor1-last= Barton |editor1-first=Simon |editor2-last=Portass |editor2-first=Robert |year=2020 |title=Beyond the Reconquista: New Directions in the History of Medieval Iberia (711–1085)|chapter=The Life and Death of an Historiographical Folly: The Early Medieval Depopulation and Repopulation of the Duero Basin |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uPDcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 |publisher=Brill |page=21|isbn=978-9004423879 }}</ref> The concept has served the idea "that Spain is a nation shaped against Islam", contributing to "a largely biased and distorted vision of the Iberian medieval past, aimed at delegitimizing the Islamic presence (al-Andalus) and therefore at legitimizing the Christian conquest of the Muslim territory."<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=García Sanjuán |first=Alejandro |date=2020 |title=Weaponizing Historical Knowledge: the Notion of Reconquista in Spanish Nationalism |journal=Imago Temporis: Medium Aevum |issue=14 |pages=133–162 |url=https://repositori.udl.cat/handle/10459.1/69327 |doi=10.21001/itma.2020.14.04 |s2cid=226491379 |issn=1888-3931|doi-access=free |hdl=10272/19498 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Among other arguments, one of those advanced by scholars is that "no military campaign lasts eight centuries."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Querol |first=Ricardo de |date=28 February 2020 |title=There was no Reconquest. No military campaign lasts eight centuries' |url=https://english.elpais.com/arts/2020-02-28/henry-kamen-there-was-no-reconquest-no-military-campaign-lasts-eight-centuries.html |access-date=19 May 2022 |website=El País English Edition |language=en-us}}</ref> The term "reconquista" in this sense first appeared in the 19th century, and only entered the dictionary of the [[Royal Spanish Academy]] in 1936, with the rise of [[Francisco Franco]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vox reinvents history to claim 'Reconquista' of Spain {{!}} Francis Ghiles |url=https://thearabweekly.com/vox-reinvents-history-claim-reconquista-spain |access-date=21 May 2022 |website=AW |language=en}}</ref> The concept of the reconquista continues to have significance and has even experienced a resurgence in modern politics—especially for the extreme right Spanish party [[Vox (political party)|Vox]], but also more broadly among [[Xenophobia|xenophobic]] and especially [[Islamophobia|Islamophobic]] conservatives in the West, with the influence of the doctrine of a "''[[Clash of Civilizations]]''".<ref name=":4" />

The popular hero [[El Cid]], whose name is highly associated with the Reconquista, at one part in his career fought for the Muslim rulers of [[Taifa of Zaragoza|Zaragoza]], whom he defended from its traditional enemy, the Christian [[Kingdom of Aragon|Aragon]]. The most important achievement of El Cid's career, the conquest of the [[Taifa of Valencia|kingdom-city of Valencia]], was actually achieved in close alliance with the [[Banu Hud]] and other Muslim dynasties opposed to the [[Almoravids]].<ref name="Quest">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W-MIChVmZwQC|title=The Quest for El Cid|author=Fletcher, Richard A.|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1989|isbn=978-0195069556|location=Oxford, UK|pages=166–168, 198}}</ref>

===French emulation===

In 1558, the armies of King [[Henry II of France]] managed to conquer the city of [[Calais]], which had been under English rule for centuries. Queen [[Mary I of England]] considered the loss of Calais as the greatest disaster of her reign.<ref>Holinshed, Raphael (1808) [1586] ''Holinshed's chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland'', Vol. 4 (England), Ellis, Sir H. (ed.), London : J. Johnson ''et al.'', 952 p.</ref> The region around Calais, then-known as the ''[[Calaisis]]'', was renamed the ''Pays Reconquis'' ("Reconquered Country") in commemoration of its recovery by the French.<ref name="TurpynBritain)1846">{{Cite book |last=Turpyn |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1v0UAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR24 |title=The chronicle of Calais: in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. to the year 1540 |publisher=British Library, Printed for the Camden Society by J.B. Nichols |year=1846 |page=24 |access-date=5 February 2012}}</ref> The French were certainly aware of the Spanish Reconquista, and since at the time [[Philip II of Spain]] was Queen Mary's consort, use of this term might have been intended as a deliberate snub to him.<ref name="Larousse(Firm)1960">{{Cite book |last=Larousse |first=Pierre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ft9MAQAAIAAJ |title=Grand Larousse encyclopédique |publisher=Librarire Larousse |year=1960 |page=59}}</ref>

===Festivals in modern Spain and Portugal===
[[File:Filà mora Al-Hagamba-Muza Moros i Cristians Pego.jpg|thumb|''Moros y Cristianos'' festival in [[Pego, Alicante]], 2016]]
Currently, festivals called ''[[moros y cristianos]]'' (Spanish), ''moros i cristians'' ([[Catalan language|Catalan]]), ''mouros e cristãos'' (Portuguese) and ''mouros e cristiáns'' (Galician), which all mean "Moors and Christians", recreate the fights as colorful parades with elaborate garments and many fireworks, especially on the central and southern towns of the [[Land of Valencia]], like [[Alcoi]], [[Ontinyent]] or [[Villena]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Persistent effects ===
A 2016 study found that the "rate of Reconquest"—how rapidly the Christian frontier was expanded—has persistent effects on the Spanish economy to this day. After an initial phase of military conquest, Christians states incorporated the conquered land. When large frontier regions were incorporated at once, the land was mostly given to the nobility and the military orders, with negative effects on long-term development. The incorporation of small regions, on the other hand, generally allowed for the participation of individual settlers and was more likely to fall under the auspices of the crown. This led to a more equitable distribution of land and greater social equality, with positive effects on long-term development.<ref name="Oto-Peralías2016">{{Cite journal|last1=Oto-Peralías|first1=Daniel|last2=Romero-Ávila|first2=Diego|s2cid=156897045|date=13 May 2016|title=The economic consequences of the Spanish Reconquest: the long-term effects of Medieval conquest and colonization|journal=Journal of Economic Growth|language=en|volume=21|issue=4|pages=409–464|doi=10.1007/s10887-016-9132-9|issn=1381-4338|hdl=10023/10769|url=https://riuma.uma.es/xmlui/bitstream/10630/11092/1/OtoPeralias-Malaga.pdf|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

===Reverberations===
[[File:Assault-on-Asilah.JPG|thumb|right|The Portuguese forces, personally commanded by King [[Afonso V of Portugal|Afonso V]], in the [[conquest of Asilah]], Morocco, 1471, from the ''[[Pastrana Tapestries]]'']]
As the Christian kingdoms completed their conquest of territory on the Iberian Peninsula, they shifted their impetus elsewhere, even to the [[Maghreb]], which is  located across the Strait of Gibraltar. A Castilian Crown-sanctioned punitive expedition against Tetouan, a corsair stronghold, was launched as early as 1399–1400.{{Sfn|Bunes Ibarra|1995|p=18}} The [[conquest of Ceuta]] in 1415 marked the beginning of Portuguese expansion in Africa. Thereby, it allowed Portugal to exert control over Castilian and Aragonese trade through the Strait, and it also allowed Portugal to establish a powerbase for the launching of raid expeditions in Muslim-ruled lands.{{Sfn|Bunes Ibarra|1995|pp=19–20}} Some 15th-century political writers promoted the idea of a "Gothic Monarchy", an heir to [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], that included territory across the Strait.{{Sfn|Bunes Ibarra|1995|pp=16–17}} 

The African enterprise which was undertaken during the rule of the [[Catholic Monarchs]] was nominally endorsed by papal bulls and it was also financed with donations which were used to pay the crusade tax, even if it was viewed with some suspicion by the Papacy.{{Sfn|Bunes Ibarra|1995|p=17}} Conquest efforts in Africa on the part of the Catholic Monarchy by and large stalled following the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon.{{Sfn|Bunes Ibarra|1995|p=14}} The model of conquest and repopulation by Christian powers in the Peninsula was however never reproduced in Northern Africa, and with the conquered territory—a fortified mark with very few fortresses scattered along an extensive coastline—merely adopting a defensive role, it allowed for Ottoman expansion in the region.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=La presencia española en el Norte de África: las diversas justificaciones de las conquistas en el Magreb|first=Miguel Ángel de|last=Bunes Ibarra|journal=Aldaba|url=http://e-spacio.uned.es/fez/eserv/bibliuned:Aldaba-1995-25-2020/Documento.pdf|pages=15, 23–25|issn=0213-7925|issue=25|year=1995}}</ref>

The Portuguese [[Ottoman–Portuguese conflicts|warred with the Ottoman Caliphate]] in the [[Portuguese expedition to Otranto|Mediterranean]],<ref>proficiscitur Hydruntum classis quam ex Portugallia accersivimus. … Speramus illam magno usui Hydruntine expugnationi futuram. …</ref> [[Ottoman naval expeditions in the Indian Ocean|Indian Ocean]]<ref name="soucek">{{Citation   | first = Svat   | last = Soucek   | editor-last = Vagnon   | editor-first = Emmanuelle   | editor2-last = Hofmann   | editor2-first = Catherine   | contribution = Piri Reis. His uniqueness among cartographers and hydrographers of the Renaissance   | contribution-url = http://www.lecfc.fr/new/articles/216-article-11.pdf   | date = June 2013   | pages = 135–144   | publisher = CFC   | title = Cartes marines : d'une technique à une culture. Actes du colloque du 3 décembre 2012.   | url = http://production-scientifique.bnf.fr/Biblio/cartes-marines-dune-technique-une-culture-actes-du-colloque-du-3-decembre-2012   | access-date = 12 December 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180627202943/http://production-scientifique.bnf.fr/Biblio/cartes-marines-dune-technique-une-culture-actes-du-colloque-du-3-decembre-2012   | archive-date = 27 June 2018 | url-status = dead   }}</ref> and [[Ottoman expedition to Aceh|Southeast Asia]] as the Portuguese conquered the Ottomans' allies: the [[Adal Sultanate|Sultanate of Adal]] in East Africa, the [[Sultanate of Delhi]] in South Asia and the [[Sultanate of Malacca]] in Southeast Asia.<ref>João Paulo de Oliveira e Costa, Vítor Luís Gaspar Rodrigues (2012) [https://books.google.com/books?id=n2ziSAAACAAJ ''Campanhas de Afonso de Albuquerque: Conquista de Malaca, 1511'' p. 13] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618230212/https://books.google.pt/books?id=n2ziSAAACAAJ |date=18 June 2018 }}</ref>

[[Christopher Columbus]]'s initial 1492 [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|voyage to the Americas]] was predicated on the completion of the Granada War, with the Spanish monarchy only able to assent to his overseas journeys once it had completed the process of defeating the Moors.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Years In Spain: Columbus Finds a Sponsor {{!}} Religious Studies Center |url=https://rsc.byu.edu/christopher-columbus-latter-day-saint-perspective/years-spain-columbus-finds-sponsor |access-date=10 June 2024 |website=rsc.byu.edu}}</ref> Columbus's views of the New World and the Christian convictions that shaped his actions there were influenced by historical European anti-Muslim ideas that had underpinned the Reconquista itself;<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mikhail |first=Alan |date=17 December 2020 |title=How the Specter of Islam Fueled European Colonization in the Americas |url=https://lithub.com/how-the-specter-of-islam-fueled-european-colonization-in-the-americas/ |access-date=10 June 2024 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US}}</ref> he believed that by his voyaging, he would be able to reach the [[Grand Khan]] of Asia and create a coalition that could attack the Middle East from both sides and thus bring Jerusalem back under Christian rule.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hamdani |first=Abbas |date=1979 |title=Columbus and the Recovery of Jerusalem |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/598947 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=99 |issue=1 |pages=39–48 |doi=10.2307/598947 |jstor=598947 |issn=0003-0279|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Far-right motif ===
[[File:Día de la Toma (no a la Toma).jpg|thumb|An army parade in Granada attended by [[History of the far-right in Spain|far-right]] sympathizers waving the [[Symbols of Francoism|Francoist flags]] on the occasion of ''[[Día de la Toma de Granada]]'', 2 January 2016]]
Along with the rhetoric of the [[crusades]], the rhetoric of the 'Reconquista' serves as a rallying point in the political discourse of the contemporary [[Far-right politics|far-right]] in Spain, Portugal and, more broadly, it also serves as a rallying point in the political discourse of the [[Radical right (Europe)|far-right]] in Europe.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=The Reconquista revisited: mobilising medieval Iberian history in Spain, Portugal and beyond|first=Tiago João Queimada e |last=Silva|title=The Crusades in the Modern World|editor-first=Mike|editor-last=Horswell|editor-first2=Akil N.|editor-last2=Awan|year=2020|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1-138-06607-6|pages=57–65}}</ref> Frequently, references to the Reconquista and the crusades are allegorically played as [[internet meme]] by 21st-century online far-right groups which seek to convey [[Islamophobia|anti-Muslim sentiments]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bogerts |first1=Lisa |last2=Fielitz |first2=Maik |chapter='Do You Want Meme War?': Understanding the Visual Memes of the German Far Right |title=Post-Digital Cultures of the Far Right: Online Actions and Offline Consequences in Europe and the US |editor1-last=Fielitz |editor1-first=Maik |editor2-last=Thurston |editor2-first=Nick |publisher=transcript Verlag |date=2019 |page=145 |chapter-url=https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/13289/Post_Digital_Cultures_137-153_Bogerts_Fielitz_Understanding_Visual_Memes_German_Far_Right_.pdf?sequence=5 |doi=10.14361/9783839446706-010 |isbn=978-3-8394-4670-6 |s2cid=158818388 }}</ref> The theme has also been used as a major rallying point by [[Identitarian movement|identitarian]] groups in France and Italy.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=From Identity Politics to the Identitarian Movement. The Europeanisation of Cultural Stereotypes?|title=National Stereotyping, Identity Politics, European Crises|first=Karel|last=Šima|pages=75–94|doi=10.1163/9789004436107_006|year=2021|publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-43610-7 |s2cid=236580880}}</ref>

''[[Día de la Toma de Granada]]'', the annual commemoration of the surrender of Sultan Boabdil in Granada on 2 January acquired a markedly nationalistic undertone during the early years of the [[Francoist regime]] and, since the death of the dictator [[Francisco Franco]] in 1975, it has served as glue for extreme right groups by facilitating their open-air physical gatherings and providing them with an occasion which they can use to explicitly state their political demands.<ref name="garciasanjuan" /> A [[Spanish Legion]] unit usually parades and sings ''El novio de la muerte'' ("Boyfriend of death").<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 January 2020 |title=Así sonó 'El novio de la muerte' cantado por la Legión este 2 de enero en Granada |url=https://www.ideal.es/granada/toma-granada-legion-sono-novio-muerte-20200102144112-nt.html |access-date=9 March 2022 |website=Ideal |language=es}}</ref> The [[far right]] has also waged a [[culture war]] by claiming dates in the history of the Reconquista, such as the aforementioned 2 January or 2 February, regional festivities for the related [[autonomous communities]] ([[Andalusia]] and [[Region of Murcia|Murcia]]).<ref name="garciasanjuan">{{Cite web|url=https://www.eldiario.es/andalucia/en-abierto/manipulacion-pasado-ultraderecha-reaccion-academica_132_7374060.html|website=[[eldiario.es]]|first=Alejandro|last=García Sanjuan|date=3 April 2021|title=La manipulación del pasado por la ultraderecha y la reacción académica}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Convivencia]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|30em}}
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* Linehan, Peter. ''History and the historians of medieval Spain'' (Oxford UP, 1993) pp. 95–127. [https://archive.org/details/historyhistorian0000line online]
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* O'Callaghan, Joseph F.: ''Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), {{ISBN|0-8122-3696-3}}
*{{Cite book |last=O'Callaghan |first=Joseph F. |title=The Last Crusade in the West : Castile and the Conquest of Granada |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-8122-0935-8 |edition= |location=Philadelphia |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press}}
* Payne, Stanley, "[http://libro.uca.edu/payne1/payne6.htm The Emergence of Portugal]", in ''A History of Spain and Portugal'': Volume One. 
* Perez, Joseph (2006) ''The Spanish Inquisition: A History'', Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-11982-8}}, {{ISBN|978-0-300-11982-4}}
* Queimada e Silva, Tiago . "The Reconquista revisited: mobilising medieval Iberian history in Spain, Portugal and beyond."  in ''The Crusades in the Modern World'' (2019) pp: 57–74.
* {{cite book |author=Reilly|first= Bernard F. |title=The Medieval Spains |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1993 |isbn=0-521-39741-3 |series=Cambridge Medieval Textbooks}}
* Riley-Smith, Jonathan, ''The Atlas of the Crusades''. Facts on File, Oxford (1991)
* Roth, Cecil. The Spanish Inquisition. (W.W Norton & Company, New York Press, 1964)
* Van Alphen, Floor, and Brady Wagoner. "Reconstructing the ‘Reconquista’: Students’ negotiation of a Spanish master narrative." ''Memory studies'' 16.5 (2023): 1156–1172. [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brady-Wagoner/publication/353691194_Reconstructing_the_%27Reconquista%27_Students%27_negotiation_of_a_Spanish_master_narrative/links/61e6bd285779d35951b92617/Reconstructing-the-Reconquista-Students-negotiation-of-a-Spanish-master-narrative.pdf online]
* Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas, 2013, "Revisiting the Anglo-Norman Crusaders' Failed Attempt to Conquer Lisbon c. 1142", Portuguese Studies 29:1, pp.&nbsp;7–20. {{JSTOR|10.5699/portstudies.29.1.0007}}
* Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas, 2009, "[https://www.academia.edu/1619392/Anglo-Norman_Intervention_in_the_Conquest_and_Settlement_of_Tortosa_Crusades_8_2009_600_dpi_black_and_white_with_OCR Anglo-Norman Involvement in the Conquest and Settlement of Tortosa, 1148–1180]", Crusades 8, pp.&nbsp;63–129.
* Villegas-Aristizábal, Lucas, 2018, "Was the Portuguese Led Military Campaign against Alcácer do Sal in the Autumn of 1217 Part of the Fifth Crusade?" Al-Masāq 30:1 {{doi|10.1080/09503110.2018.1542573}}
* Watt, W. Montgomery: A History of Islamic Spain. [[Edinburgh University Press]] (1992).
* Watt, W. Montgomery: The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe. (Edinburgh 1972). 
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons|Reconquista|''Reconquista''}}
* [http://explorethemed.com/reconquista.asp Islamic Spain and the ''Reconquista'' – Atlas and Article]
* [http://www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1996-7/Gibbs.html Forging a Unique Spanish Christian Identity: Santiago and El Cid in the ''Reconquista'']

{{History of Christianity|collapsed}}{{Middle Ages}}{{Historiography}}{{Colonization}}{{Authority control}}

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