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In-Depth Information
R
Reconquista (Reconquest)
This term, developed relatively late in Span-
ish history, relates to the period 711-1492
and to the process by which Iberian Chris-
tians regained control of the peninsula from
Muslim invaders (usually referred to as
Moros, or Moors). The process of recon-
quest was neither continuous nor fully con-
scious, except in its later stages. As early as
the defeat of the Muslims at the Battle of
Covadonga (718) by the king of A
STURIAS
,
a Christian attempt was being made to halt
further conquest by the invaders and recap-
ture a modest amount of lost territory.
There was, however, no ongoing drive to
resist or repel the Moors. The fractured
nature of Iberian political and physical
geography made dealings with the local
Muslim rulers a matter of regional priori-
ties. There were extended periods of peace-
ful interaction followed by flare-ups that
arose from specific issues. Indeed, Christian
warriors venturing across the Pyrenees to
promote a “crusade” against Islam in the
mid-11th century found that their coreli-
gionists in Iberia were not interested in an
all-out onslaught followed by destruction
and looting of Muslim towns. They seemed
to prefer targeted operations and negotiated
settlements. Frustrated by this preference
for peaceful coexistence, the French and
other would-be combatants soon turned
their attention to crusading enterprises in
the Middle East.
As for the concept of a grand vision
embracing all the Christian people of Iberia
in a recovery of the whole territory that
had been overrun in the eighth century,
there is very little substantial evidence of
such an idea in the early Middle Ages. Lead-
ers such as El Cid (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar),
who was later hailed as a champion of
Christian liberation, or, in some versions,
harmony among all the inhabitants of the
peninsula, was essentially a local warlord
who fought with or against the Moors
according to his needs. When the western
area that would evolve into the kingdom of
Portugal finally expelled the Moors in the
mid-12th century, the leaders of this move-
ment showed little concern for their Span-
ish neighbors or the remaining Moorish
presence in the rest of the peninsula. There
were, to be sure, some visionary calls for a
crusade, a war of liberation, or a restoration
of the old Visigothic realm that preceded
the 711 invasion. But these dated mostly
from the very early Middle Ages and tended
to emanate from the clergy rather than
from the pragmatic ranks of lords and
fighters.
Irregular and interrupted as the process
was, it had produced by the beginning of
the 15th century a shift in the balance of
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