Iberian Christian Kingdomsin Middle Ages

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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Iberian Kingdoms in Middle Ages

Important kingdoms and relevant kings

- Castilla and Alfonso X, the Wise

- Aragón and Jaime I, the Conqueror

The Christian conquest of the Muslim lands

- Key moment: Battle of Navas de Tolosa (1212)

- Key moment: The Conquest of Granada (1492)

The conquest and the repopulation of the new lands

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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Important kingdoms: Castilla and Leon

Castilla and Leon were independentkingdoms, but finally they wereunified(the final name was Kingdomof Castilla)

Castilla and Leon was the mostimportant kingdom in the period of the Reconquest

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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Important kingdoms: Aragón

Aragon was an important kingdomduring the MA

This kingdom was mainly focus onthe Mediterranean sea

However, the kingdom willparticipate in the Reconquest

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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Important kingdoms: Navarre

Navarre was the less importantkingdom of the Iberian Peninsula

Navarre did not participate so muchin the Reconquest for geographicalreasons

Navarre was under French influence

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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Important king of Castilla. Alfonso X, theWise

This King was very famous for differentreasons:

Cultural

- He promote culture with the creation of theSchool of Translation in Toledo: This schooltranslated important works from Arab and Jewish authors to Spanish and Galician.

- He spoke several languages and he wroteseveral books in Galician and Spanish

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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Important King of Castilla. Alfonso X, theWise

Economic

- He created the Mesta, an associationof sheepherds to promote the woolmarket in Castilla and improve theroads

- The fair of Medina del Campo wasone of the most important fairs in Europe.

Militar

He conquered important cities as Murcia or Sevilla.

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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Important King of Aragón. Jaime I

Jaime I conquered important lands forthe Crown of Aragón:

- Valencia

- Balearic Islands

- He helped with the conquest of Murcia by Castilla

- After Jaime I, the Kingdom of Aragonwas focus on the Mediterrean Sea, and in XIV, it was an important Empire withthe conquest of Sardinia, Naples, Sicilyand Athens.

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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Kingdom of Aragon: an Empire in theMediterranean Sea

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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The Christian conquest of the Muslim lands

The Reconquest was a long process (from VIII century to XV century)

After the initial conquest by Muslims, theChristians were able to advance and recover partof the lands

The Muslims at the beggining were united in theCaliphate of Cordoba. But, in XI century theywere divided into small kingdoms (theKingdoms of Taifas) so it was easy for Christiansto attack them

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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The Christian conquest of the Muslim land

The situation was very hard for theMuslims, so the King of Sevilla askedfor help from North Africa: theAlmoravids

The Almoravids were Berber tribesfrom the dessert of North Africa, withan extreme and fanatic interpretationof Islam

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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The Christian conquest of the Muslim lands

Almoravids were able to unify Muslimlands again, making the Muslim sidestronger

At this point both sides had similar power

However, Almoravids become weakerand the Muslims went back to theprevious situation of Kingdom of Taifas, so the Christians advanced.

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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The Christian conquest of the Muslim lands

Christians got advantadge, but a new fanatic tribe from North Africa arrived: the Almohads

Almohads were extremely fanatic, and they entered in the Iberian Peninsula with the idea of “destroy the Christianism” and “conquer Rome”

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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The Christian conquest of the IberianPeninsula

They called for the Yihad (Holy War) so thousands of Muslims from all the world arrived to fight against Christians in the Iberian Peninsula

At the same time, Christians called for a Holy War (C…..) so hundreds of knights from Europe went to IP to fight against Muslims

The final battle was produced in 1212 (The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa)and the Christians won

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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The Christian conquest of the IberianPeninsula

After this battle, a big part of thePeninsula was over Christian control

There was just one Muslim kingdomleft: the Nasrid Kingdom of Granade, which will be conquered in 1492 by the Catholic Kings (theConquest of Granade)

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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The process of repopulation

When the Christians conquered a Muslim land, theyhad two options to control this area:

- Bring new population from Christian lands

- Make an agreement with the Muslims who livedthere (they respect the religion and in exchange, peasants will work for them)

- Generally, the kings mixed both formulas to obtainpopulation, although in Aragon, kings were more respectful towards Muslims.

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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The society of three cultures

So, the society in the South was composed by Christians, Muslims and Jews

This was an unique case in Europe, and Toledo was a symbol of tolerance

This was a very enriching experience for the Christian kingdoms (Arabs were welldeveloped in Science and Jews were literate)

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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The process of repopulation

The kings gave important pieces of land to the Church (Militar Orders) who fought to conquer the territories

This explains why in the South of Spain, there are big fields(latifundios), meanwhile in the North, there are small fields (minifundios)

Prof. Samuel Perrino Martínez. SEK Les Alpes

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