Toulouse in present-day France, the
Visigoths ruled Spain for three centuries,
until 711. Their rule was, in some ways, a
continuation of Roman rule, with Roman
law and culture and Latin speech remain-
ing in force, although with Visigothic
adaptations.
Moorish Spain
In 711, the rule of the Visigoths came to
an abrupt end with the arrival of a new
religion: Islam. Founded in Arabia by the
prophet Muhammad in the 7th century
and spread by military conquest across the
north of Africa, Islam came to the
Berbers, a North African people also
known as the Moors. The Moors, in turn,
brought Islam to Spain, crossing the Strait
of Gibraltar in 711. By 718, they had
conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Moors tried to advance into France
but were stopped near the city of Poitiers
in 732 by the Frankish ruler Charles
Martel.
Almost as soon as the Muslim con-
quest of Spain was completed, the
Christian reconquest of Spain began. The
Reconquest, or Reconquista, did not take
place all at once but spanned more than
five centuries (ca. 1000–1492). It began
when Pelayo, a Christian Visigothic
chieftain, defeated the Moors at
Covadonga in 722, securing his rule of
the independent kingdom of Asturias in
mountainous northern Spain. By the 11th
century, Christian control of Spain had
spread to other parts of the north, notably
the kingdoms of León (which included
Asturias), Navarre, Castile, and Aragón.
The rulers of Christian Spain advanced
steadily into Muslim lands, but they spent
as much time warring with each other
and with their nobles as with the
Muslims. The reign of King Alfonso VII
(1126–1157) was typical: although he
united the thrones of León and Castile,
he failed in his bid to rule Aragón as well,
and after his death, even León and Castile
fell into civil war.
Meanwhile, the Moors under the
Umayyad dynasty of emirs (756–929) and
caliphs (929–1036) developed an ad-
vanced civilization in southern Spain.
The capital of Moorish Spain, Córdoba,
became the greatest western European
city of its day, marked by universities,
public lighting, limited toleration for
Christianity and Judaism, and freeTHE ROOTS OF A PEOPLE 5The Reconquest of Spain
WHYPORTUGAL IS
NOT SPANISH
The earliest European competitors
in the Americas were Portugal and
Spain. Yet to the Romans, Visigoths,
and Moors, Portugal was just
another part of their Iberian lands,
with a status no different from that
of a Spanish province. It was only in
1139 that Alfonso Henriques, the
count of Portugal, declared his
realm’s independence and took the
title King Alfonso I.
Alfonso and his successors ex-
panded their kingdom into Moorish
territory, until, in 1249, the Moors
were expelled from Algarve, com-
pleting the Portuguese reconquest.
Under King John I, who reigned
from 1385 to 1433, Portugal suc-
cessfully defended itself against
attack by Castile, formed an
alliance with England, and fostered
a new age of overseas exploration
and conquest. Portugal’s overseas
adventures were aided by its posi-
tion on Europe’s Atlantic coast and
by its development of the caravel,
a light ship equipped for ocean
voyages. By 1500, Portugal had
captured Ceuta in Morocco; colo-
nized the Atlantic islands of
Madeira, the Azores, and Cape
Verde; begun to colonize the West
African coast; staked a claim to
what would be their colony of
Brazil; and discovered a sea route
from Europe to India around the
southern tip of Africa. Still, Portugal
did not become the dominant
power in the Americas, losing to
Spain and others. Portugal itself
came close to being subsumed
into Spain. In 1580, Spanish king
Philip II annexed Portugal, which
remained part of Spain until
1640, when a revolt restored
Portugal’s independence. Ever
since, Portugal has been in-
dependent, and its one time
colony of Brazil, where the national
language is still Portuguese, has
not been part of Hispanic America.Beginning in about the year 1000, Christians in the northern regions of the Iberian
peninsula began a struggle to reconquer the lands conquered by Muslim invaders in 711.
As the map above illustrates, by 1492, only Granada in Spain’s south remained in Muslim
hands. In that year, however, the combined forces of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of
Aragón retook that territory, uniting all of the peninsula under Christian rule.