The History Book

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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