At school we were taught many lies, especially in a matter of history. One of the biggest is regarding the "reconquista". The name itself is a big lie, because there was never recapture anything.
begin at the beginning. The kingdom of the Visigoths is the first state genuinely English. That is, the kingdom founded by the Visigoths is the first Hispania (Spain) independent, the origin of the present English state. But this kingdom disappeared between 711 and 716, after a war against the Arabs. The Arab conquest was made possible due to internal disputes that existed between the noble Goths. In fact, in the 71st, one year before the start of the Muslim invasion, died Witiza Gothic king. In the midst of invasion, the country was divided between the nobles who had been appointed king Don Rodrigo, and those who considered that the king should be one of the sons of Witiza. The infighting was by then a constant in the kingdom, and it certainly facilitated the Islamic conquest.
Arabs defeated King Roderick in Guadalete, and completed their domination of the peninsula in 716, with further support of the various noble Goths, who joined them, that military victories. Could not win, however, Asturias, where the noble Gothic resisted Don Pelayo, who founded the kingdom Astur end. The Astur kingdom is not what remains of the Visigothic kingdom, which was broken, but a new entity that emerges from the Gothic resistance against the invasion. In addition, Asturias in the future will not be the sole focus of "reconquista" as another focus emerge in the Pyrenees.
From Astur kingdom Christians were taking new possessions to the Muslims, taking advantage in this case the internal struggles for power in Al-Andalus between the different factions (Arabs, Berbers, Slavs ...) and noble families. Thus came to conquer the Cantabrian end of the eighth century. Astur The kingdom was then transformed into the kingdom of Leon, who broke down in the kingdoms of León, Galicia and Portugal. Galicia would be recovered, but not Portugal, that he would remain as an independent kingdom (except for a brief period during the reign of Philip II). Portugal continued its "renewal" on its part to shape their country, conquered León Extremadura, which was its border with Islam. What happened while the rest of Spain?
The Muslim invasion was halted in Asturias, but not in the Pyrenees, penetrating even into the kingdom of the Franks, where they were arrested at the battle of Poitiers (732). The Franks then began their particular "reconquista", going into English territory in what is now northern Navarra, Aragon and Catalonia. There they formed the Hispanic in the late eighth century, as a zone of resistance against the Arab threat. The brand came to take so much power that it acquired independence, especially in Navarra, which became vested in their own kingdom. Also in the county of Barcelona, \u200b\u200balthough he never became a kingdom. Navarre has expanded and ended breaking up into three kingdoms: Navarre, Castile and Aragon. Throughout history, Navarre was isolated in the north, Aragón expanded southward, and in particular to the east, incorporating Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and beyond, Naples, Sicily, etc ... Castilla, meanwhile, spread southwards by conquering the entire center of the peninsula.
Finally, the kingdoms of León (in Galicia) and Castile were united in 1230 with Fernando III, leading to the crown. This would join the Crown of Aragon in 1469, with the marriage of the Catholic kings. Then he would enter the kingdom of Granada to the Castilian crown in 1492, with the end of the War of Granada. Finally, today's Spain would settle in 1512, when Ferdinand Navarra conquest. Canary was incorporated into Castile in 1483. Thus, the last kingdom joins Granada Spain is not, as is often taught in schools, but Navarra.
The idea that this process was a reconquest is false for several reasons:
1 .- If the Visigoths sought to regain his kingdom, left Portugal, the southern part France, and part of northern Morocco, as part of the Visigoth kingdom.
2 .- Although the founders of the Astur kingdom descended from Gothic resistance, not the founders of the Hispanic, part of the kingdom of the Franks, and gave rise Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre and Castile, with all that Aragonese and Castilians conquered a posteriori.
3 .- It was a conquest unit. There were many kingdoms, as in the Muslim side, where were the Taifa kingdoms. These kingdoms also were often pitted against each other.
4 .- Nor was it a religious reconquest. Muslim and Christian kingdoms often joined to fight other Muslims and Christian kingdoms. Moreover, after the conquest of Granada, not forcing Muslims to convert to Catholicism (as stated in the chapter.)
5 .- There was an awareness of "reconquista" by the Christian kings. They simply took land to its neighbors, be they Christian or Muslim.
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6 .- Even after completion of the "reconquista" and unification of Spain, the concept of Spain as a nation was formed. Each kingdom maintained its independence as a kingdom, ruled by a king all common. For this reason, the king of Spain called himself king of Castile, Leon, Aragon, etc., etc., or simply King of Spain, for short. The first king who was called king Amadeo I of Spain was already in the nineteenth century.
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Example clearest of all is the length of the Sultanate of Granada, which lasted 200 years longer than other Taifa kingdoms. This was not due to a military resistance, but a policy of friendship with Castilla, which was a tributary kingdom. For example, in 1431, King of Castile, Juan II, invaded Grenada to overthrow the Sultan Muhammad IX, Lefty. But his claims were not conquer the territory, but to impose another king, Yusuf IV. In fact, the Catholic kings, when they decided to conquer the sultanate in the War of Granada (1482-1492), had the inestimable help of Boabdil Zagal, who had been dethroned by his niece, Boabdil the Younger. Most likely, the expected Zagal get rewarded with the crown of Granada, but it was not, and Elizabeth I decided to enter the realm for a long time ally of Castile, the English crown.
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