The History Book

128

CAST DOWN THE

ADVERSARIES OF MY

CHRISTIAN PEOPLE

THE FALL OF GRANADA (1492)

A

t midnight on January 2,

1492, Abu ‘Abd Allah, the

Muslim Emir of Granada,

handed over the keys of his city to

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella,

joint rulers of the Christian Spanish

states of Aragón and Castile. This

act marked the end of nearly 800

years of Muslim rule in the Iberian

peninsula and the eclipse of a

great civilization renowned for its

architectural splendors and a rich

tradition of scholarship. At the

same time, it signaled the birth of a

self-confident, united Spain that

would soon divert its energies away

from crusading against its Muslim

neighbors, turning them instead

towards building an overseas

empire in the New World.

Christian conquests

Muslim Spain (or al-Andalus)

dated from the Islamic conquest

of the Visigothic kingdom in 711.

Christian resistance survived in

Asturias, in the far north, but it

took centuries for the kingdoms of

Castile, Aragón, León, and Navarre

to gain the strength to push slowly

southward into Muslim lands.

This gradual reconquest, known

as the Reconquista, gathered pace

during the 11th century, when

the Muslim regions broke up into

numerous competing emirates

(“taifas”) and lost the strategically

important city of Toledo in central

Spain, in 1085.

The growth of the crusading

spirit in western Europe also

accelerated the progress of the

Reconquista. Formal crusades

against the Spanish Muslims (or

Moors) were declared several times

from the mid-14th century and a

military culture emerged, in which

raids into al-Andalus acquired the

air of righteous expeditions. From

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

The Reconquista

BEFORE

722 Pelagius defeats Muslims

in Asturias, northern Spain.

1031 End of the centralized

Umayyad caliphate of Córdoba.

Muslim al-Andalus breaks up

into several small emirates.

1212 Battle of Las Navas de

Tolosa, in which the Christians

defeat the Almohad caliph.

1248 Ferdinand III of Castile

defeats Muslims at Seville.

AFTER

1492 Ferdinand and Isabella

decree the expulsion of all

Jews from Castile and Aragón.

1497 Spanish seize Melilla

on the coast of North Africa.

1502 All remaining Muslims

expelled from Spain.

1568–71 Muslim converts to

Christianity rise up against

repressive Christian rule in

the Revolt of the Alpujarras.

A kingdom of so many

cities and towns, of such

a multitude of places. What

was this, if not that God

wanted to deliver it and

place it in their hands?

Andrés Bernáldez

Archbishop of Seville (1450)

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129

See also: Founding of Baghdad 86–93 ■ The fall of Jerusalem 106–07 ■ The fall of Constantinople 138–41 ■

Christopher Columbus reaches America 142–47 ■ The Treaty of Tordesillas 148–51

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

Christians amass wealth

after seizing land and

assets from Muslims.

Union of kingdoms of

Aragón and Castile ends

Christian infighting.

Muslims weakened

by the break-up of the

centralized caliphate.

United Spanish kingdom allocates resources to

overseas expansion in the New World.

Jews and Muslims are

expelled from Spain.

Reconquista escalates as Christians benefit from greater

resources and unity, culminating in the fall of Granada

to the Castilian-Aragonese army.

completing the Reconquista. It also

put an end to centuries of Christian

infighting, and this unity coincided

with a period of Muslim division.

From 1482, the monarchs undertook

a series of military campaigns to

conquer Granada—the last Muslim

the 12th century, military orders,

such as Santiago and Alcántara,

were founded. They frequently

spearheaded independent thrusts

into Muslim territory, amassing

great wealth in the process, which

enabled them to sustain extended

campaigns and ransom Christians

taken prisoner in the wars. They

also repopulated land conquered

from the Muslims with Christians.

The end of Muslim Spain

In Portugal, the Reconquista was

completed with the conquest of the

Algarve in 1249, while in Spain the

Muslims clung on to power in the

south. However, this was not to

last. In 1474, Queen Isabella

ascended to the throne of Castile,

in northern Spain. Her husband

Ferdinand was already king of the

neighboring state of Aragón, and

they resolved to permanently expel

the Muslims from the south. The

union of the two crowns enabled

them to devote more resources to

emirate in the Iberian peninsula.

The cities were put under siege and

fell one by one, until finally the major

city of Granada surrendered in 1492.

Despite an agreement reached

at the capitulation of Granada,

which contained guarantees for

freedom of worship, in 1502 the

monarchs decreed that any Muslims

over the age of 14 who refused to

convert to Christianity must leave

Spain within 11 weeks. This edict,

combined with the expulsion of the

large Jewish community in Granada

10 years earlier, left Spain a more

homogeneous and less tolerant

place, and the crusading impulse,

now shorn of obvious targets, would

have to find other channels.

Christopher Columbus’s

expedition to the New World in

1492—the same year as the fall of

Granada—provided the Spanish

with just such an outlet, leading to

their colonization of the Americas

and Spain’s subsequent emergence

as the first global superpower. ■

Known as the Catholic Monarchs,

Ferdinand and Isabella joined forces

and used military might to restore

Christianity in Spain, suppress other

religions, and colonize the Americas.

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