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centuries. This was due to the 1469 marriage
of Isabella I of Castille and Ferdinand II of
Aragon, who were determined to unite and
strengthen the Spanish empire. Since the
early 700s, much of Spain had fallen under
the rule of the Moors, North African Muslims;
by the late 1200s, however, the Moors’ king-
dom was reduced to southern Spain. On Jan-
uary 2, 1492, the forces of Ferdinand and
Isabella succeeded in capturing the city of
Granada in southern Spain. This marked the
end of the Reconquista (Reconquest), the
nearly 800-year-old struggle by Spanish
Christians and Jews to expel the Muslim
Moors from Spain. The Spanish victory left a
large number of Spanish soldiers unem-
ployed and available for new conquests. It
also spread religious fervor throughout the
kingdom, increasing a desire to spread the
Christian religion.
Imperial and religious policy were insepa-
rable in much of Europe in this era. The
rulers of Spain felt it was their religious duty
to convert the inhabitants of lands where
Christianity was not the predominant reli-
gion—or to conquer such lands if the inhab-
itants resisted. Politically, this made 1492 a
perfect year for Columbus to ask the court of
Ferdinand and Isabella for the resources nec-
essary to reach parts of the world where
Christianity might be preached for the first
time.
The merchants of Spain’s commercial
ports were prosperous and open to investing
At various times, King Ferdinand ruled Sicily,
Naples, Castile, and León (the latter two jointly with
Isabella). In 1492, in addition to Columbus’s first
voyage, which Ferdinand and Isabella sponsored,
the rulers conquered the only region of Spain not
under their control, thereby unifying the country.
(Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[LC-USZ61-253])Queen Isabella ruled jointly with Ferdinand until
her death in 1504.(Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division [LC-USZ61-252])(^14) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
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