The Reconquista — The Christian Reconquest of Iberia (711–1492)

Tariq ibn Ziyad, a Berber commander serving the Umayyad Caliphate, landed near Gibraltar with approximately 7,000 troops and defeated the Visigothic King Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete. Within seven years, most of the Iberian Peninsula fell under Muslim rule, becoming al-Andalus. The Umayyad conquest was remarkably rapid — the Visigothic Kingdom collapsed due to internal division and weak central authority.

The Christian victory at Covadonga, led by the Visigothic noble Pelagius (Pelayo), is traditionally considered the beginning of the Reconquista. Pelagius's small force of Asturian mountaineers ambushed a Muslim patrol in a narrow valley, securing the independence of the Kingdom of Asturias. While modest in scale, the battle's symbolic importance grew enormously in Spanish historiography as the first successful Christian resistance.

King Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile captured Toledo, the former Visigothic capital and a major cultural and political center of al-Andalus. The surrender was negotiated, allowing the city's Muslim inhabitants to remain. Toledo's libraries — containing classical Greek and Arabic works — became a vital conduit for transmitting ancient knowledge to Western Europe through the Toledo School of Translators.

As part of the Second Crusade, a combined force of Portuguese soldiers under King Afonso I and northern European crusaders besieged and captured Lisbon from the Moors after a four-month siege. The conquest was a major victory for the emerging Kingdom of Portugal, transforming it from a small county into a significant maritime power. Thousands of Muslim defenders were killed or enslaved after the city fell.

A coalition army of Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal — supported by papal-backed crusaders — defeated the Almohad Caliphate at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. The victory broke Almohad military power in Iberia and opened the way for the rapid Christian advance through the 13th century. The battle is considered the pivotal turning point of the Reconquista, after which Muslim rule in Iberia was permanently on the defensive.

King Ferdinand III of Castile captured Cordoba, the former capital of the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba and one of the largest cities in Europe. The Great Mosque of Cordoba was consecrated as a Christian cathedral. Cordoba's fall marked the effective end of major Muslim power in the Guadalquivir Valley and was followed by a wave of territorial gains across southern Spain.

After a 16-month siege, Ferdinand III captured Seville, the largest and most prosperous city in al-Andalus. The city's fall completed the Christian conquest of most of the Guadalquivir Valley. Only the Emirate of Granada — a tributary state paying annual fees to Castile — remained under Muslim rule. Ferdinand III's campaigns consolidated Castilian dominance over southern Iberia.

Emir Muhammad XII of Granada surrendered the city to the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, ending 781 years of Muslim political presence on the Iberian Peninsula. The Treaty of Granada initially guaranteed religious freedom for Muslims. However, later that year the Alhambra Decree ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Castile and Aragon, displacing approximately 200,000 people. Christopher Columbus received royal backing for his Atlantic expedition in the same year.

Queen Isabella I issued an edict banning Islam in the Crown of Castile, forcing all Muslims to either convert to Catholicism or leave by the end of April 1502. Similar decrees followed in Navarre (1515) and Aragon (1526). Those who converted (Moriscos) faced ongoing suspicion and persecution. In 1609-1614, King Philip III ordered the expulsion of the Moriscos, and approximately 300,000 were forced from Spain, ending centuries of Muslim presence.