Reconquista

The Reconquista refers to the long history of Christian campaigns to recapture the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule, beginning after the early 8th-century conquest of Hispania and continuing until the fall of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada in 1492. It was not a single war but a sequence of military actions, political realignments, and provincial shifts carried out over several centuries by Christian kingdoms such as Castile, León, Aragon, Navarre, and, later, Portugal. The term was popularized by modern historians; medieval actors did not describe their efforts as a single, unified crusade.

During the early period, Christian resistance began in the north and gradually extended southward. Key milestones include the symbolic victory at Covadonga in the 720s, the capture of Toledo in 1085, and the decisive Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, which weakened Muslim power in Iberia. The 13th and 14th centuries saw steady territorial gains, with Córdoba falling in 1236 and Seville in 1248. The campaign culminated with the conquest of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, in 1492, effectively unifying the modern Spanish realms under their crowns.

The Reconquista had long-lasting effects on the Iberian Peninsula, including demographic and urban changes, the frontier repopulation (repopulation) process, and shifting policies toward Muslims and Jews. The 1492 Alhambra Decree expelled Jews who did not convert, while many Muslims faced conversion or expulsion in later years. The period helped shape the emergence of a centralized Spanish state and influenced Iberian expansion beyond the peninsula.