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

Episode 42, the Battle of Rio Salado. Oh, yeah. This week's episode focuses on the 1340 battle in the far south of the Iberian

Peninsula called the Battle of Rio Salado, anglicized as the River Salado, and alternatively referred to as the Battle of Tarifa.

It is categorized within the wider story of the Reconquista, the gradual Christian re conquest of the Iberian Peninsula following the invasion of Islamic cultures from the 8th century.

This battle saw a Christian coalition of Iberian kingdoms

attempt to resist the invasion of an Islamic coalition which included a huge

army from Moroccan lands who crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. Firstly let's have a look at the history of the area of the southernmost point of Europe that overlooks this historically important strait of water. The Battle of Rio Salado took place during the 14th century

right at the southern tip of the modern country of Spain. This is the place where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean.

It is also where Europe faces Africa at the Strait of Gibraltar.

It is certainly believed that this area of Europe was one of the last Neanderthal

strongholds between 30 and 40,000 years ago.

After the extinction of the Neanderthals,

European Stone Age cultures developed

until the Neolithic Revolution brought farming into Europe.

The very south of Spain is called Andalusia

and this area of Spain, like many others, takes its specific identity very seriously.

These days it's an autonomous community, but Andalusians also respect their historical Andalusian distinction.

Andalusia stood on the brink of one of the greatest waterway trade routes and as such would have been privy to the

materials changing hands in prehistoric and ancient Europe.

As such pottery cultures emerged and then Bronze Age cultures in the post-nolithic millenniums.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus refers to the lands either side of the Strait of Gibraltar as the pillars of Heracles. He wrote that beyond the pillars was the lands of the Tartesos, a civilization which

apparently benefited from the metal-rich trade of these waterways being

...