The History of the World Podcast, written and presented by Chris Hasler

Volume 4 The Medieval World, Episode 42A, the Emmaret of Granada. And the The story of the Emirates. The the Reconquista is a retrospectively named period in history of the Iberian

Peninsula which is the home of today's countries, Portugal and Spain.

Reconquista is the Spanish word for re-conqueste,

and this refers to the Christian re-conquest of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim occupies,

so it is a romanticism of Christian victory.

In reality there were much deeper politics between all of the

many nation states that came and went during this period so it was a simple case of two ideologies at war with each other

throughout the historical period. The process of re-conquest took place between the 8th century and the 15th century, so not too far away

from 8 centuries.

The Iberian Peninsula was dominated by the Romans following the expulsion of the Carthaginians during the 3rd century B.C.

and remained under Roman control until the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century.

It was at this point that the Germanic peoples called the Visegoths swept into the Iberian Peninsula, a land that they had helped the Romans to defend against its enemies

until the Viscicoth realized that they were the superior partner in the relationship.

The Romans fell away into obscurity and the Visigoths moved in.

The Visigoths, unlike the Romans, had not been Christianized at this stage.

That would come a century later at the end of the sixth century.

The Visigoths continued to dominate the Iberian Peninsula until the beginning of the 8th century

when an invasion came from over the Strait of Gibraltar from Africa.

The invasion came from the rapidly expanding Umead Caliphate who originated in the Middle East

and conquered all of North Africa. The Umayyads were

responsible for the most significant initial expansion of Islamic peoples.

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