The History of the World Podcast, written and presented by Chris Hasler. Volume 4, the Medieval World

Episode 40, Reconquista, the Early Years Oh, This episode focuses on the earliest stage of something called the Reconquista.

In the year 7-Eleven, the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Umeads from across the Strait of Gibraltar from Africa.

The Iberian Peninsula was dominated by the Visigoths at this time.

The Visigoths were originally a Germanic peoples

who migrated to the Iberian Peninsula

from Eastern Europe

during the final century of the Western Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries.

The Visigoths were originally pagan like all of the Germanic tribes were originally, but they were Christianized like many of the Germanic tribes,

like many of the Germanic tribes and other barbarians to the Romans. Earlier in our medieval story, we told the story of the Visigoths during a dedicated episode,

and at the end of the episode we told the story of how Tariq I Ziyad of the Umayads invaded the kingdom of the Visegoths,

which resulted in the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.

However, the Umayyads were not able to take control of the entire

Peninsula. One of the last Visigothic stands was led by a man called Pelagius who had to flee to the far north

coast of the peninsula and fend off the expansion of the Umeads. He did this

successfully and therefore saved one small portion of land from the Umayyads, and that portion of land is what we referred to as the Kingdom of Asturias. The establishment of the Kingdom of Asturias in the Umead Iberian Peninsula is seen

as the beginning of the re-conquest of the

beginning of the Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Christian nations, something that would take 781 years to achieve.

This re-conquest is retrospectively referred to in the Spanish tongue as the Reconquista and was seen as a test by God of the Christian nations.

Much of the mountainous land of Asturias was not really a high priority for the Umeads. The fact that they were unsuccessful in their quest to keep it

meant that a Christian presence that became the new home for those religious relics

inherited from the Visigoths still existed and its existence

...