The Moors

Spain and Portugal comprise the Iberian Peninsula in the southwestern corner of Europe. The peninsula is separated from France and the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees Mountains, but at the narrow strait of Gibraltar, only nine miles separate Spain from the north coast of Africa. It was through that narrow strait that, in AD711, a group of Arab, Berber and other Muslim peoples from North Africa invaded Spain and ruled part or most of the Iberian Peninsula for almost 800 years. The local people called the invaders Moors, a term that means dark-skinned.

In AD409, the Roman government in Spain fell to Germanic speaking warriors called Visigoths. Visigoth kings ruled Spain for three centuries until the arrival of Jabal Tariq and his army of 10,000 soldiers. The rock where Tariq and his soldiers landed is now known as Gibraltar, which means "Mount Tariq." Tariq's army found little opposition from the Visigoths and managed to control most of the peninsula by 719. A Muslim army crossed the Pyrenees Mountains and attempted to invade the land we now call France in 732, but the Muslim warriors were held back by the armies of Charles Martel.

Spain was often prosperous under the rule of the Moors. The Moors encouraged learning and the arts. At the caliphate, or religious center, in Cordoba, scholars studied the works of the classical Greek and Roman authors, while artists and architects established the city as a center of the arts. The Moors were tolerant of the Christian and Jews who lived in the land they conquered, but they taxed the people who did not share their Islamic faith at a higher rate. As a consequence, many citizens converted to Islam to avoid paying higher taxes. 

Christian warriors began the reconquista—reconquering—of Spain in 1085. Portugal was established as an independent nation in 1148. The Christian kingdoms of Castille and Aragon formed in northern Spain became powerful during this era. By the end of the thirteenth century, only the kingdom of Granada remained under Muslim control.

In 1469, the Kingdoms of Castille and Aragon were united with the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Catherine of Castile. The "Catholic kings" built roads throughout their combined kingdom, and limited the power of lords over their serfs. Ferdinand and Isabella established unified laws and coinage. In 1492, when their armies captured Granada, the last Muslim territory in Spain, the monarchs ordered that all Jews and Muslims either convert to Christianity or leave Spain. As Muslims retreated to Africa, Spain began to look to the west. The same year that Ferdinand and Isabella banished Jews and Muslims from Spain, Isabella financed the sailing expedition of Christopher Columbus, which led to the establishment of the Spanish Empire in the Americas.

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