We explain what the Reconquista was and what its stages were. In addition, the forms of repopulation and artistic manifestations.
What was the Spanish Reconquista?
The Reconquista is called the period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the years 718 (probable date of the rebellion of Pelayo, who faced the Muslim expansion in Asturias that had begun in 711) and 1492 (when the fall of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada before the troops of the Catholic Monarchs).
During this long period of almost eight hundred years, Christian and Muslim kingdoms coexisted and fought in the peninsular territory. Before the Muslim invasion, the peninsula was dominated by the Visigoth kingdom, whose last kings professed Catholicism.
The term “Reconquista” has been highly discussed. Despite the efforts of some of the Christian kingdoms to present themselves as successors of the Visigoths, the kingdoms that “reconquered” the peninsula were born after the Islamic invasion, so it would have been a simple conquest. However, the expression is used by many historians to designate this period.
Frequently asked questions
What was the Reconquista?
It was a period of almost eight hundred years of confrontation between Christian and Muslim kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. It began after the Islamic invasion of the peninsula in the 8th century.
Why was it called that?
It was called “Reconquista” because the Christian kingdoms that fought against the Muslims identified themselves with the Christian Visigothic kingdom that had dominated the peninsula before the Islamic invasion.
Who participated in the Reconquista?
In the different stages of the Reconquista, various kingdoms were formed that participated in the confrontations. In Al-Andalus (the territory governed by Muslim authorities), the Caliphate of Córdoba, the Emirate of Córdoba, the Taifa kingdoms, the North African empires (Almoravid and Almohad) and the Nasrid kingdom of Granada succeeded one another. In Christian Spain, the first phase of the Reconquista was carried out by Asturias and the following ones by the kingdoms of Castile and León, Aragon and Navarra.
How did the Reconquista begin and how did it end?
The Reconquista began in 718, shortly after the Arab and North African invasion of the Iberian Peninsula that had begun in 711. The Muslims controlled most of the peninsula and Pelayo, a Christian leader who became the first king of Asturias, He rebelled and defeated an Islamic army at the Battle of Covadonga (718). The Reconquista ended on January 2, 1492, when the last Muslim kingdom on the peninsula, the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, surrendered to the troops of the Catholic Monarchs.
The first centers of Christian resistance
In the mountains of the north of the Iberian Peninsula Christian resistance groups began to organize after the defeat of the Visigoth kingdom against the Muslim troops of the Umayyad Caliphate in 711.. Until the 10th century, these nuclei simply resisted or occupied unpopulated areas, such as the north of the Duero basin. The Muslim Arabs and Berbers, whose territory on the peninsula was called Al-Andalus, had hegemony.
The Asturian core
In 722, Pelayo (a possibly Visigoth nobleman) and the Asturian indigenous people defeated a Muslim expeditionary army in Covadonga. From that moment on, the kingdom of Asturias began to be organized.
- Alfonso I of Asturias (739-757) He assumed the Visigothic heritage: he established the Fuero Juzgo (a legal code that subjected all the inhabitants of the kingdom to the same laws) and other Visigothic political elements. The emigration to the north of the Visigothic and Hispano-Roman population reinforced this continuity.
- Alfonso II (791-842) He established the capital in Oviedo. During his reign, a tomb was discovered that was attributed to the apostle Santiago the Greater, which gave rise to the Christian pilgrimage known as the Camino de Santiago.
- Alfonso III (866-910) He took the border of the kingdom to the line of the Duero River, occupying the northern basin (which was “no man's land”). During his reign, several chronicles were written that reinforced the idea of continuity between the Visigoth kingdom and the Asturian-Leonese kingdom. Upon his death, the capital was moved to León and the kingdom of León was established.
The Navarrese core
The western area of the Pyrenees was between the Frankish kingdom and Al-Andalus. After the battle of Roncesvalles, in which Basque groups from the Navarre region triumphed against the Franks In 778, the Íñiga dynasty imposed itself on the kingdom of Pamplona.
The Navarrese core reached its peak with Sancho III the Greater (1000-1035)who extended his power to Aragon and Castile. He was the most powerful monarch of the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula in the 11th century.
The Aragonese nucleus and the Catalan nucleus
The Aragonese nucleus was formed in areas of weak settlement in the central Pyrenees. was first under the influence of the Carolingians and then the Navarrese. He made little progress in the Reconquista against the powerful Muslim nucleus around the Ebro valley.
In the north of present-day Catalonia, the Carolingian Frankish kingdom established the Hispanic March, a border area between the Carolingian kingdom and Al-Andalus that was organized into counties. Soon the county of Barcelona predominated over the others. Wifredo el Velloso, count of Barcelona, reconquered some territories and began a process of independence regarding the weakened Frankish kingdom. Already in the 10th century, the successors of Wifredo el Velloso stopped paying feudal homage to the French monarch and the county of Barcelona became an independent political entity.
The political history of the peninsular Christian kingdoms
As I progressed the Reconquista, Castilla gained independence from León in the 10th or 11th century, Portugal gained independence from Galicia in the 12th century, and Aragon expanded southward in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Subsequently, Castilla incorporated Asturias, León, Galicia and part of the kingdom of Navarra. On the other hand, Aragon absorbed the county of Barcelona and the kingdom of Valencia: at the beginning of the 12th century, Petronila of Aragon married Ramón Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona, and their son, Alfonso II, was the first monarch in inherit the two titles of king of Aragon and count of Barcelona. From that moment on, the union of these two territories was known as the crown of Aragon.
The main stages of the Reconquista
In the long period of confrontation between Muslims and Christians that characterized the Reconquista, at least four stages can be distinguished:
- First stage (8th-10th centuries). Since the first important confrontations, such as the Christian victory in Covadonga (722), a long period began in which the Christian centers in the north consolidated their territory and advanced slightly towards the south. The kingdom of Asturias reached the line of the Duero River in the year 910. This led the successors of Alfonso III to move the political center of the kingdom to León.
- Second stage (11th centuries and first half of the 12th). The kingdoms of León and Castile took advantage of the Muslim weakness caused by the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba into multiple taifa kingdoms. They crossed the Central mountain range and occupied the Tagus River basin. Toledo was reconquered in 1085 and the territory located between the Sistema Central mountain range and the Tagus River was incorporated into the kingdom of Toledo, which remained under the authority of the crown of Castile.
The Almoravid invasion, coming from North Africa, put a stop to the Castilian-Leonese expansion process, but the Christian advance towards the south was reactivated in the east when Alfonso I of Aragon reconquered Zaragoza in 1118 and Ramón Berenguer IV, count of Barcelona , he conquered Tortosa (1148) and Lérida (1149). Meanwhile, Alfonso I, the first king of Portugal, conquered Lisbon in 1147. - Third stage (end of the 12th century and beginning of the 13th century). The Christian advance was again interrupted, this time by the arrival of the Almohads from North Africa. However, little by little Castilla y León managed to dominate the valleys of the Guadiana River and Sierra Morena, in the south. This process culminated with the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212): the Christian victory allowed the advance towards the Guadalquivir valley and Valencia.
- Fourth stage (13th to 15th centuries). The rapid occupation of the Guadalquivir valley (Córdoba, Seville) by the forces of Ferdinand III the Saint (king of Castile and León) and of Valencia and the Balearic Islands by James I the Conqueror (king of Aragon) caused the last kingdom Muslim will be installed in Granada.
At the end of the Middle Ages, the peninsula was divided into four Christian kingdoms (Castile, Aragon, Navarra and Portugal) and one Muslim kingdom (Granada). The Nasrid kingdom of Granada resisted until its surrender to the forces of the Catholic Monarchs on January 2, 1492.
The forms of repopulation during the Reconquista
As the Christian kingdoms They conquered territories during the Reconquista, repopulation was carried out: the occupation and economic exploitation of conquered territories. These forms of occupation determined the property structure in Spain and Portugal for centuries.
They can be distinguished different forms of repopulation in the different stages of the Reconquista:
- First stage. Pressure or aprisioin the repopulation of the Duero Valley and the Vich plain (almost uninhabited areas).
The peasants, sometimes led by a nobleman or a clergyman, freely occupied the land. The king later sanctioned the legality of the property.
This repopulation generated a society of free peasants based on small property. The peasants were engaged in the military defense of the conquered land (as was the case of the Castilian peasant-villains).
- Second stage. Council repopulation, in the Ebro and Tagus valleys.
Repopulation was based on the creation of councils and cities with their alfoz (jurisdiction), which were provided with fueros or town charters, that is, freedoms and privileges for their inhabitants with the aim of attracting the population to border areas. They used to be dangerous. The villainous cavalry (horse troops made up of inhabitants of cities or towns) was in charge of defense and consolidated itself as the hegemonic social group in the new population centers.
This repopulation was directed by the king and shaped a society based on medium property. In areas such as Toledo or Zaragoza, the abundant Muslim population was expelled to the countryside or to the outskirts of the cities.
- Third stage. Repopulation of the upper valleys of the Júcar-Turia and Guadiana.
The repopulation in this stage was based on repartimientos to the great military orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara and Montesa (Aragón).
This repopulation created an area characterized by large cattle ranches with fortresses to defend the border.
- Fourth stage. Repopulation of Extremadura, Guadalquivir valley and Levante.
The kings granted territories to the nobles and warriors who participated in the military conquest: donadíos (large estates for the great nobility) or inheritances (smaller properties). The new type of agrarian structure was based on large property. Councils were organized in the cities.
Most of the Muslims fled to the kingdom of Granada. However, in the farmlands of the Levant many remained working for the Christian nobility.
In the Balearic Islands there were divisions among the nobility and the Muslim population was decimated or expelled.
Despite these different models of repopulation, the feudal society model It was consolidated throughout the peninsula, with its typical institutions such as vassalage and territorial and jurisdictional lordships.
Cultural diversity in the Christian kingdoms of the Reconquista
During the time of the Reconquista, Relations between Christians and Muslims were not always war. There was also coexistence and mutual cultural influences between the three religions present in the peninsula: Christian, Muslim and Jewish.
In Al-Andalus, architecture, science and thought stood outwith figures such as Ibn Hazem (994-1063) or Ibn Rusd (Averroes) (1126-1198). In Christian Spain, some monasteries, such as Ripoll or Sahagún, were dedicated to copying and preserving books.
In the 9th century, the Jacobean pilgrimage route to the alleged tomb of the apostle Saint James the Greater was born. The Camino de Santiago became a key route for cultural dissemination. Literary models, such as epic poems, and artistic styles, such as Romanesque and Gothic, arrived from other places in Christian Europe. The cultural influence also occurred in the opposite direction and the cultural contributions of the Christian and Muslim kingdoms of the peninsula reached the rest of Europe.
From the 11th century onwards a period of cultural impulse began parallel to the formation of Romance languages, such as Spanish (used for the composition of the Cantar de mio Cid, around 1207), Galician, Portuguese or Catalan-Valencian. In the 13th century the first universities appeared (such as that of Salamanca in 1218, which received the title of university in 1252).
An important cultural bridge between the Islamic world and Christianity was the prestigious Toledo School of Translators, which reached its peak during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile, called “the Wise”, in the 13th century. Over there Christians, Muslims and Jews collaborated in the translation of texts from Arabic or Hebrew to Latin and Spanish. The School of Translators was very important in the dissemination, both in the peninsula and in the rest of Europe, of scientific, philosophical and literary works by classical Greek, Roman and “Oriental” authors, which, in many cases, had been lost. in their original versions.
However, In Christian kingdoms religious minorities often lived marginalizedsuch as the Jews (mostly urban) and the Mudejars (Muslims who continued to live in the territories conquered by the Christians, mainly in the countryside).
When the Catholic Monarchs conquered the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, The expulsion of the Jews (1492) and Muslims (1502 and 1525) from the peninsula was decreed.which caused displacements and forced conversions (Judeoconversos and Moriscos continued to live on the peninsula)
The artistic manifestations of the Christian kingdoms during the Reconquista
The Spanish Romanesque
In the 11th century, art was introduced to the Iberian Peninsula. Romanesquethe international style of Christianity of the time. Its most unique features were the predominance of the mass over the opening and the symbolic nature of most of its elements.
- Architecture. The most significant buildings of this style are the Catalan monastery of Santa María de Ripoll, the cathedral of Jaca in Aragón, the church of San Martín de Frómista in Palencia and the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
- Sculpture. It stands out for the Portico of Glory in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (which presents a transitional style to Gothic), the façade of the Ripoll monastery or the tympanum of the façade of the Jaca cathedral.
- Paint. Works stand out such as those of the basilica of San Isidoro de León or those of the church of San Clemente de Tahull in Lérida.
The Spanish Gothic
Starting in the 13th century, a new style, Gothic, prevailed in Christianity. In contrast to the Romanesque, The Gothic gave primacy to the opening over the solid, while seeking features such as verticality and luminosity.. It was also characterized by its naturalistic pretension.
- Architecture. The cathedrals of Burgos, Toledo and León, located in the crown of Castile, and those of Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca, in the crown of Aragon, are of this style.
- Sculpture. The masterpiece is the Portico of Glory of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, an example of the transition from Romanesque to Gothic art.
- Paint. It reached great development in the 15th century, with such relevant names in the crown of Castile as Jorge Inglés and Fernando Gallego, and in the crown of Aragon, such as Bartolomé Bermejo and Jaume Huguet.
Mudejar art
Mudejar art reached a notable development in the Iberian Peninsula, especially in Castile and Aragon. This style adapted to the lines of the Romanesque and Gothic, but introduced new features such as the use of brick or tile or the presence of ornamental elements of Muslim roots.
Typical examples of Mudejar art are the royal fortresses of Seville, the monastery of Santa Clara in Tordesillas (Valladolid) or the tower of San Martín in Teruel.
References
- Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2023). Reconquest. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
- Ríos Saloma, MF (2011). The Reconquest. A historiographical construction (16th-19th centuries). Marcial Pons.
- Valdeón Baruque, J. (2006). The Reconquest. The concept of Spain: unity and diversity. Espasa.
- VV.AA. (2012). The Reconquest. Wake up Ferro Ancient and Medievalno. 13.
