The Reconquista
Over nearly eight centuries Christian kingdoms in the north push south against al-Andalus, building the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, León, Navarre and Portugal.
- Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain — Joseph F. O'Callaghan, University of Pennsylvania Press (2003)
- La conquista islámica de la península ibérica y la tergiversación del pasado — Alejandro García Sanjuán, Marcial Pons (2013)
- A Concise History of Spain — William D. Phillips Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips, Cambridge University Press (2010)
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
Tradition dates the beginning to around 722, when an Asturian leader called Pelayo defeated a Muslim force at Covadonga. From that foothold, and from the counties the Franks set up beyond the Pyrenees, kingdoms grew southwards: Asturias-León, Castile, Navarre, Aragon, the county of Barcelona and Portugal. Toledo fell to Castile in 1085; the decisive Christian victory came at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212; Córdoba fell in 1236 and Seville in 1248, leaving only the Nasrid kingdom of Granada.
- Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain — Joseph F. O'Callaghan, University of Pennsylvania Press (2003)
- A Concise History of Spain — William D. Phillips Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips, Cambridge University Press (2010)
It was never a single campaign. Castile and Aragon competed for territory, Christian lords served Muslim kings (the hero El Cid did both), and long periods passed in uneasy truce. From the twelfth century the papacy treated the wars as crusades, and the military orders of Santiago and Calatrava held the frontier.
- Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain — Joseph F. O'Callaghan, University of Pennsylvania Press (2003)
- Moorish Spain — Richard Fletcher, University of California Press (1992)
The southward push left a lasting imprint: Castilian spread with Castile, Catalan with the Crown of Aragon, and the frontier society of soldiers, settlers and fortified towns shaped Spain’s later conquest of the Americas.
- Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain — Joseph F. O'Callaghan, University of Pennsylvania Press (2003)
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
- Imperial Spain 1469–1716 — J. H. Elliott, Penguin (1963)
A centuries-long crusade, begun by Pelayo at Covadonga in 722, to restore Christian Spain; the moment the Spanish nation was forged.
- Spanish Identity in the Age of Nations — José Álvarez Junco, Manchester University Press (2011)
- Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain — Joseph F. O'Callaghan, University of Pennsylvania Press (2003)
The idea of a single "reconquest" was largely built later by chroniclers and nineteenth-century nationalists. In reality several kingdoms expanded at different speeds, often fought each other and allied with Muslim rulers, and the frontier was porous.
- La conquista islámica de la península ibérica y la tergiversación del pasado — Alejandro García Sanjuán, Marcial Pons (2013)
- Moorish Spain — Richard Fletcher, University of California Press (1992)
Why it matters today
The word itself is political. For Spanish conservatives and the far-right party Vox, which launched a 2019 campaign in Covadonga, it is the founding epic of a Catholic nation. Many historians and regional nationalists reject it as a myth that turns a patchwork of kingdoms into one story.
Catalonia was born on this frontier, as the Frankish "Spanish March", and its own expansion south to Tortosa, Lleida, Majorca and Valencia is why Catalan is spoken across the Balearics and Valencia.