Reconquista - Legacy

Legacy

Part of a series on the
History of Spain
Early history Prehistoric Iberia Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula Roman conquest of Hispania Romanization of Hispania
Medieval Visigothic Kingdom Suebic Kingdom Byzantine Spania Umayyad conquest of Hispania Al-Andalus Reconquista
Early modern Catholic Monarchs Age of Expansion Spanish Empire Golden Age Enlightenment
19th century War of Independence Cádiz Cortes / 1812 Constitution Independence of Spanish America Reaction and Revolution First Republic Restoration Disaster of 1898
20th century Second Republic Civil War Francoist Spain
Modern Spain Transition to democracy Spain since 1975
By topic Colonial history Economic history Military history
Timeline
Spain portal

Part of a series on the
History of Portugal
Ancient Prehistoric Iberia Pre-Roman peoples Neolithic Roman conquest of Hispania Romanization of Hispania Lusitania Gallaecia Suebic kingdoms Visigothic kingdoms
Origins Umayyad conquest of Hispania Al-Andalus Al-Garb Al-Andalus County of Portugal Reconquista
Afonsine Independence and expansion Royal consolodation
Imperial era Imperial origins Iberian Union Exploration Empire
Brigantine Restoration and Pombiline Imperial decline War and revolt Transfer of Court to Brazil Liberal Wars 1910 revolution
Republic First Republic Monarchy of the North 1926 coup d'état Ditadura Nacional Estado Novo Portuguese Colonial War
Contemporary Carnation Revolution Processo Revolucionário Em Curso Transition to democracy
Topic Economic History Language History Military History Music History
Regions Azorean History Madeiran History
Timeline
Portugal portal

See also: History of Spain, History of Portugal, and Portugal in the period of discoveries

Real, legendary, and fictional episodes from the Reconquista are the subject of much of medieval Galician-Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan literature, such as the cantar de gesta.

Some noble genealogies show the close relations (although not very numerous) between Muslims and Christians. For example, Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir, whose rule is considered to have marked the peak of power for Moorish Al-Andalus Iberia, married Abda, daughter of Sancho Garcés II of Navarra, who bore him a son, named Abd al-Rahman, and commonly known in pejorative sense as Sanchuelo (Little Sancho, in Arabic: Shanjoul). After his father's death, Sanchuelo/Abd al-Rahman, as a son of a Christian princess, was a strong contender to take over the ultimate power in Muslim al-Anadalus. A hundred years later, King Alfonso VI of Castile, considered among the greatest of the Medieval Spanish kings, designated as his heir his son (also a Sancho) by the refugee Muslim princess Zaida of Seville.

It has also been proposed that the war left the Iberian kingdoms with deep economic crises, leading to the expulsion of the Jews (who had lived in the Iberian Peninsula for over ten centuries) in order to confiscate their funds and property. It can be questioned due to the Portuguese Reconquista that had ended in 1249, and both the Castillian and Portuguese kingdoms that may have begun profiting from maritime expansion along Africa before the Jews and Moors were expelled. The huge wealth from the Americas was still to arrive as Columbus' first voyage and the surrender of Granada were both in 1492.

The Reconquista was a war with long periods of respite between the adversaries, partly for pragmatic reasons, and also due to infighting among the Christian kingdoms of the North spanning over seven centuries. Some populations practiced Islam or Christianity as their own religion during these centuries, so the identity of contenders changed over time.

Earlier Christians fighting the Moors, such as Pelayo, could plausibly be described as natives opposing foreign invasion and conquest; however, by the time most parts of Muslim Iberia were (re)conquered by Christian forces, the Muslim population there was centuries old, and much of it undoubtedly composed of converted Iberians rather than migrants from other Muslim lands. Granada at the time of its conquest in 1492 was as thoroughly Arab and Muslim a city as were Cairo or Damascus at the time.

Moreover, the ease with which the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula was directly and immediately continued by the exploits of conquistadors beyond the Atlantic clearly shows that for Spaniards at the time, conquest of non-Christian territory and its transformation into a Catholic, Spanish-speaking land were legitimate, whether or not a claim of prior possession of the land could be advanced.

Nevertheless, the expression "Reconquista" continues to be used to designate this historical period by most historians and scholars in Spain and Portugal, as well as internationally.