Conquest.

Spain->

Yeah, I know I've been gone a while. But, I have been studying something that I know very little about. So, if I make any mistakes on this post, feel free to set me straight!

In the years of 711 until 1492, the area that is now known as Spain was racked with turmoil that makes the turmoil that happened during the conquest of the New World and America look like a small chapter in a history book. The African Moors took over Spain in 711 and were not completely pushed back out or exterminated until 1492. It was a conflict that involved royalty and serfdom, the religious and heathen, the Catholics, the Muslims, and the Jews.

Moor Photo to the right->

To give you some insight about what happened to the American Indian. You should start at least a little ways back in the roots of the re-discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus. My search through history was to try to find a common thread as to why people fight each other for land, and kill each other with such little regard for humanity. What was the motivation?

In the Eighth Century, Spain, a country on the Iberian peninsula, north of the Mediteranian Sea, was a Roman Catholic country, with a few Jews scattered in. The Moors, who were Muslims, invaded from Africa and conquered the Iberian people as far north as the Basque country. The Moors landed near Gibraltar. The rock of Gibraltar was named after General Tarik ibn Ziyad. The rock was called Djabal Tarik (`Tarik's Mountain'), or Gibraltar. Tarik was the leader of the Moors. Upon his landing in Iberia he gave this rousing speech:


"My brethren, the enemy is before you, the sea is behind; whither would ye fly? Follow your general; I am resolved either to lose my life or to trample on the prostrate king of the Romans."

The Moors, from the North Western Continent of Africa, were black people with curly hair and it is said that many of the people of the Iberian peninsula today are descended from the Moors. The dark skin and curly hair of many of the Portuguese People came from the Moorish influence.

The Green Area to the right is the part of Spain and the Iberian peninsula that the Moors conquered. ->

The initial invading force was only 10,000 Moors. Later, more invaders came, increasing the fighting force to 28,000, but at no time did the invading army exceed 40,000 troops. The ruling class of Iberia was the Goths and the Visigoths. (Goths from the west) The reason that the Muslims were able to so easily defeat the great number of Christian Goths is because nobody much liked the Christians, and people readily joined forces with the Moors to overthrow them. Anyone that would convert to the Muslim religion would be freed, and allowed to remain in Iberia. Then, of course, the Jews looked forward to the defeat of the Christians, so they became the Moors willing ally. That was probably one of the few times in history that the Jews and the Muslims allied. It is thought that the Moors may have been encouraged to invade Spain by the Iberian serfs. The Iberians expected the Moors to take a little booty and go back home, but the wealth and power kept the the Moors in Spain.

What the moors actually did is take some of the wealth that they found, and a fine bevy of Spanish beauties back to Africa, as proof of the great wealth and beautiful women that they had found in Spain. In short order, many of the Moors were scrambling to get to Iberia. It is said that Many of the Moors built log rafts to cross the Straights of Gibraltar, to find their own wealth and women. Not many of the Moors took their women with them. They found and married the Spanish women after arriving. I wonder what the Marriage ceremony was like.

The conquest of Spain by the Moors sounds a lot like the American Gold Rush, doesn't it?

After defeating the Iberians, the Moors chopped up the leaders of the defending Iberian armies and boiled them in cauldrons, the Goth King Roderick was thought to be among those pieces in the cauldrons. They then send the rest of the armies back home to spread the word of what kind of people that the Moors were, and they were not to be challenged.

The battle to get rid of the Moors from Spain started as soon as Spain was conquered. The retaking of Spain was called the “Reconquista”. (reconquest) It took 800 years, but it was complete, and it was thorough. The Pope encouraged the cleansing of the Iberian Peninsula.

”The Reconquista was originally a mere war of conquest. It only later underwent a significant shift in meaning toward a religiously justified war of liberation The papacy and the influential Abbey of Cluny in Burgundy not only justified the anti-Islamic acts of war but actively encouraged Christian knights to seek armed confrontation with Moorish "infidels" instead of with each other.”

There were several focuses in removing the Moors from Spain. First there was The Reconquista, then came the Inquisition. It would seem that it was one and the same to the lay person. But, the Reconquista was to take back the land from the Moors, whereas the inquisition was to reestablish Christianity. The Catholic Church wanted to control the people, control the wealth, and collect tithing for the Pope. The church demanded ten percent of the wealth that was gained by the serfs, they explained it thusly:

Timothy 6:17-19 states:
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

(Give some of your money to the church, your money will help you get to heaven, where you will be richly rewarded for your "tithing".)

It becomes obvious that the more people that were paying tithe, the richer that the church became. The Inquisition was not so much about spreading the word of Christ as much as it was collecting tithe. During the inquisition it was demanded that a person renounce their beliefs, and swear loyalty to the church. In fairness they gave that person three days to think about it, and at the end of the three days the person would be killed if they refused to convert to Christianity. Not only were they killed, but also all records of them having ever existed were expunged. It give a whole new meaning to the term, "If you aren't a Christian, you aren't anybody"... Literally.

Refusing to convert to Christianity was punishable by death. If a person would campaign against the church, or publicly renounce it, the person would be tortured and burned at the stake. I've read before that far more women were killed during the Inquisition than men. I was not able to find any varification of that fact, but I think that it may have been that women held to their religious beliefs stronger than men.

From Wikipedia:

"The Spanish Inquisition can be seen as an answer to the multi-religious nature of Spanish society following the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors (Muslims). Much of the Iberian Peninsula was dominated by Moors following their invasion of the peninsula in 711 until the thirteenth century. Following the Christian victory at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212), and the fall of Cordoba (1236) and Seville (1248) most of peninsula, including most of the south, came under Christian rule. Only the small region of Granada remained under Muslim rule, which was ended by a final Christian victory of 1492. However, in the medieval period the Reconquista did not result in the expulsion of Muslims from Spain, since they, along with Jews, were tolerated, although treated as inferiors, by the ruling Catholic elite. Big cities, especially Seville, Valladolid, and Barcelona, had large Jewish populations centered in "Judería

It appears that much of Spain was recovered in the three major battles, and all religions lived amongst each other peacefully. That is until the Church was so encouraged by the regaining of Spain from the Moors that they continued the battle to completely make Spain a Christian Country. And, of course, collect their pound of flesh in the form of tithe.

I wonder, if the American Indians had organized a "Reconquista," and were able to regain their land from the greedy interloper, the interloper that moved to California in great hoards, and didn't even bother to bring their women with them, because there were women in California, in the form of native women? Would they have wanted to live in peace? Or would they have started their own inquisition to demand that the interloper adopt the Indian ways or face execution.

In 1492 the Christians had finally defeated the Muslim Moors for the control of Spain. Many events in history have parallel paths. Some paths join together for a new purpose. The Reconquista was started to regain control of Spain, then the Crusade was started and paralleled the Reconquista. After the Recoquista was accomplished, The Muslims were able to live amongst the Christians peacefully, but the church wanted to be rid of the Muslins, so they continued the crusade for many years.

I had intended to use this background in a complete post, but is is beginning to get to be too long. So, as many of you already know, 1492 was a pivotal point in the history of the world. So I'm going to break here and continue the story in my next post.

To be continued:

The Moorish conquest of Spain

Spanish history, the Moor period

The Reconquista