Reconquista

Muslim mosque Spanish castle
The Reconquista  was a period of almost 800 years (539 years in Portugal) in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdomssucceeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus. The Reconquista of Al-Andalus began soon after the Islamic conquest with the formation of the Kingdomof Asturias by the Visigoths under the leadership of the nobleman Pelagius.

The processes of reconquista
The Islamic conquest of the Christian Visigothic Kingdom in the 8th century (begun711) extended over almost the entire peninsula. With its defeat in 1492, the entire Iberian Peninsula was brought back under Christian rule, thus completing the Reconquista.

Charlemagne (768–814)The Reconquista of Al-Andalus began soon after the Islamic conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom The victory over the Moors at the Battle of Covadonga in 722 was a major formative event. Charlemagne reconquered thewestern Pyrenees and Septimania and formed a Marca Hispanica to defend the border between Francia and the Muslims.

crusaders
After the advent of the Crusades, much ofthe ideology of reconquista was subsumed within the wider context of crusading. Even before the Crusades, there was a steady trickle of soldiers arriving from elsewhere in Europe to participate in the reconquista as an act ofChristian penitence. Crusaders arrived in the County of Portugal, to be led by Afonso Henriques. By 1249, the reconquest of Portugal was complete and the Moors banished.

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar Sculpturein Spain (The Cid Campeador, from “El cantar del Mío Cid)
The Reconquista, being of such great duration, is much more complex than any simple account would allow. Christian and Muslim rulers commonlybecame divided among themselves and fought. Alliances across faith lines were not unusual. The fighting along the Christian–Muslim frontier was punctuated by periods of prolonged peace and...