and bands of independent Christians challenged Moorish rule from their bases in
mountainous northern Spain.
During the ninth century, the originally united Muslim state fractured into many
small and competing kingdoms. Thereafter, Christian armies from the north were
able to confront their Muslim enemy one faction at a time. Between A.D. 850 and
1250 the balance of power gradually shifted until the only remaining Moorish king-
dom was Granada, a wealthy mountain stronghold in the south of Spain. The rest of
the peninsula was dominated by the Christian kingdoms of Portugal in the west,
Castile in the north and center, and Aragon in the northeast.
For the Christians, the conflict with the Moors was a holy war: The Islamic reli-
gion was seen as evil and the Muslim way of life as sinful. Spanish soldiers believed
that Saint James, the patron saint of Spain, not only sanctioned their quest but also
often appeared before them on a white horse, leading them into battle. Religious faith
and military zeal went hand in hand; these in turn were barely distinguishable from
political and economic ambitions. That Christ’s soldiers should enjoy the material
spoils of victory, appropriating the wealth and property of vanquished Moors, was
seen as no more than their due reward.
Over the centuries of the reconquista,Spanish Christian society came to glorify mil-
itary achievement. Lacking ancestral ties to particular pieces of territory, the aristocracy
was highly mobile, counting its wealth in herds of domestic animals rather than in agri-152 UNIT 2 COLONIAL MESOAMERICA
Figure 4.1 Map showing the main routes by which the Spaniards conquered the
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