What was the Spanish Reconquista?

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• Visigothic Kingdom

• kingdom in Iberia

• Christian Kingdom.

• In the early 7th century, a new religious force emerged in the Middle East, known as Islam.   Its followers quickly expanded the Arab Muslim empire, which soon reached the borders of Visigothic Spain.

• at the Battle of Guadalete, the Visigoths were defeated by the invaders and Iberia became an Islamic kingdom instead of Christian.

• After the defeat of the Visigoths, the Arabs took control of Spain and ruled it for centuries.

• reconquest of Spain began in AD 718

• Christian king Pelagius defeated the Muslim army at the Battle of Covadonga.

• victory encouraged successive Christian rulers to launch similar attacks on the Muslim forces in the hope of recapturing all of Spain for the Christian religion.

• reconquest continued throughout the centuries as different Christian kingdoms slowly wrested control of territory from Muslim rule.

• After a series of devastated defeats at the hands of Christian armies, the Muslim rulers in the south sought military support from a new Muslim people group called the Almoravids.

• The Almoravids, landed in Spain in 1086 and swiftly overran the Christian strongholds that had been recently conquered.

• hey are ultimately stopped on the east coast by the famous Christian military hero, El Cid, who captured the city of Valencia in 1094.

• city of Saragossa fell to the Christians in 1118

• The advance of the Christian kingdoms gradually weakened the Almoravids and, in 1147,

• The reconquest of Spain was finally completed in 1492 when the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, conquered the last Muslim stronghold of Granada.

• Castile and Aragon.

• combined the two most powerful Christian kingdoms:

• Muslims were no longer allowed to practice their religion openly and were forced to convert to Christianity or leave Spain.

• people in their kingdom were a mix of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.