Page 265 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

Christian Reconquest: The Spanish
Kingdoms
Much of Spain had been part of the Islamic world since the eighth century, and Muslim Spain had flourished in the early Middle Ages. C􏰁ordoba became a major urban center with a population exceeding 300,000 people. Agriculture prospered, and Spain also became known for excellent leather, wool, silk, and paper. Beginning in the tenth century, however, the most noticeable feature of Spanish history was the weakening of Mus- lim power and the beginning of a Christian recon- quest that lasted until the final expulsion of the Muslims at the end of the fifteenth century. The reconquista (ray-con-KEES-tuh), as the Spaniards called it, became over a period of time a sacred mis- sion to many of the Christian rulers and inhabitants of the peninsula.
By the eleventh century, a number of small Chris- tian kingdoms in northern Spain were ready to take the offensive against the Muslims. Rodrigo D􏰁ıaz de Vivar, known as El Cid (“The Master”), was the most famous military adventurer of the time. Unlike the Christian warriors of France, El Cid fought under either Christian or Muslim rulers. He carved out his own kingdom of Valencia in 1094 but failed to create a dynasty when it was reconquered by the Muslims after his death.
By the end of the twelfth century, the northern half of Spain had been consolidated into the Christian
Atlantic Ocean
LEON PORTUGAL
kingdoms of Castile, Navarre, Aragon, and Portugal, the last of which had emerged by 1179 as a separate kingdom (see Map 10.2). The southern half of Spain remained under the control of the Muslims.
In the thirteenth century, Christian rulers took the offensive again in the reconquest of Muslim territory. Aragon and Castile had become the two strongest Spanish kingdoms, and Portugal had reached its mod- ern boundaries. All three states made significant con- quests of Muslim territory. Castile subdued most of Andalusia in the south, down to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean; at the same time, Aragon conquered Valencia. The crucial battle occurred in 1212 at Las Navas de Tolosa (lahss nah-vahss day tol-LOH-suh). Alfonso VIII of Castile (1155–1214) had amassed an army of sixty thousand men and crushed the Muslim forces, leading to Christian victories over the next forty years. By the mid-thirteenth century, the Moors, as the Spanish Muslims were called, held only the kingdom of Granada, along the southeastern edge of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Spanish kingdoms followed no consistent policy in the treatment of the conquered Muslim population. Muslim farmers continued to work the land but were forced to pay very high rents in Aragon. In Castile, King Alfonso X (1252–1284), who called himself the “King of Three Religions,” encouraged the continued development of a cosmopolitan culture shared by Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
Christian reconquests, 1000–1100 Christian reconquests, 1100–1250 Christian reconquests, 1492
NAVARRE ARAGON
0 0
200
Corsica
Sardinia
Tunis
400 200
600 Kilometers 400 Miles
Rome
Palermo SICILY
MAP 10.2 Christian Reconquests in the Western Mediterranean. Muslims seized most of Spain in the eighth century, near the end of the period of rapid Islamic expansion. In the eleventh century, small Christian kingdoms in the north began the reconquista, finally conquering the last Moors near the end of the fifteenth century.
Q How do you explain the roughly north-to-south conquest of the Muslim lands in Spain?
Lisbon
Toledo CASTILE
Barcelona
ANDALUSIA Córdoba
Granada
Valencia
Las Navas de Tolosa
Algiers
The Emergence and Growth of European Kingdoms, 1000–1300 227
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