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Currently studying the Crusades. Funny how many academics denounce the Crusades as "Christian agression" when Islam was spread by the sword and only stopped by the French from taking all of Europe in 772! The first Crusade was not until 1096- iff you ask me- it should have been earlier.

The Islamic Moors conquered most of Spain in 711 A.D. after the descendents of the Visigothic warriors that had conquered Roman Hispania in 415 A.D. had become a decadent and lazy ruling class with the passage of time.

The Christians made a stand in the mountain strongholds of Galicia and Asturias and defeated the Islamic Moors in 718 A.D. at Alcama thus turning the tide of Islamic conquest.

Thus began the Reconquista of Spain that lasted until Granada, the last Moorish kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, was conquered in 1492.

The Reconquista was the earliest, the longest and the only completely succesful European Crusade in Christendom.

The Surrender of Moorish Granada, 1492

35 posted on 02/14/2004 7:55:59 PM PST by Polybius

Thanks! Good insight.

36 posted on 02/14/2004 7:58:11 PM PST by Burkeman1 ("If you see ten troubles comin down the road, nine will run into the ditch before they reach you")

The Reconquista was the earliest, the longest and the only completely succesful European Crusade in Christendom.

What about Russian lead liberation of Balkans and Russia itself? If West did not oppose it(Crimean War etc), probably Constantinople("Istambul") and coast of Asian Minor("Turkey") would be still Christian today.

39 posted on 02/14/2004 8:25:43 PM PST by A. Pole (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain , the hand of free market must be invisible)

Reconquista of Spain

Which was finalized by possibly the greatest woman in history (after Virgin Mary of course) - the Queen Isabella

40 posted on 02/14/2004 8:35:32 PM PST by A. Pole (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain , the hand of free market must be invisible)

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