Did the Reconquista exist?
The existence of the Reconquista as a period of time from 718 or 722 (Battle of Covadonga) to 1492 (Capitulation of Granada) has been long an issue of debate. So, did the Reconquista exist? When I wrote about it for my podcast, I wasn’t clear enough because I was confused too, but several months after that I can rectify and give a more categorical answer: the Reconquista as a historical period didn’t exist — but it did exist as an idea, that changed from time to time. I’m going to develop why that’s my answer below, based on my recent findings.
What’s the Reconquista?
The Reconquista has been defined as a process of restoration of the Catholic Visigothic Kingdom and liberation of the territory and Christians of al-Andalus. In essence, it was the restoration of the idea of a Christian Spain, defining Spain as both a geographical and political entity that ruled over the entire Iberian Peninsula. As I’ve said, this process started with the Battle of Covadonga, in 718 or 722, and ended in 1492 with the fall of the Nasrid Emirate of Granada. Therefore, we are talking about a very long supposed event or even war that lasted eighth centuries, which is basically the entire Middle Ages. Looking retrospectively, the process of the (so-called) Spanish Reconquista is unique in world history, because it’s an example of a successful reconversion from Islam to Christianity again, which is remarkably impressive since most places conquered by Islam never converted back to Christianity. The closest equivalent would be the reconquest of Sicily, but the key difference is that in the case of Sicily most of the job was carried out by external forces and it involved a much smaller territory.
19th century origins or… Medieval origins?
The term Reconquista didn’t appear until the 19th century, with the rise of Spanish Catholic and liberal nationalisms. It’s very hard to believe that this idea of a restoration of the Catholic Visigothic kingdom was present in the mind of the Asturian caudillo Pelayo and his early followers, because research has shown that there were still some vestigial elements of paganism and Asturian culture in the newborn Kingdom of Asturias. Therefore, Pelayo was a local Asturian lord, and not an exiled Visigoth as later chronicles wanted to make us believe. This fact alone makes the idea of the Reconquista as a time period impossible, because there is no evidence that Pelayo was trying to restore the Visigothic Kingdom.
Nonetheless, it’s true that the Reconquista as an idea did exist in the Middle Ages. Historians refer to this idea as Neogothicism, although we can informally call it the Reconquista ideology too. Neogothicism was a pretension of the Spanish Christian kingdoms, especially Asturias and its successors León and Castile, to consider themselves the legitimate heirs of the Visigothic monarchy. This idea began with Alfonso III of Asturias, in the context of increasing anarchy and weakness of central power of the Emirate of Córdoba, although it’s possible that the idea had been already developed under Alfonso II in the first half of the 9th century. In any case, Alfonso III promoted Neogothicism to justify his conquests and repopulations and legitimize the Kingdom of Asturias, so essentially it was a tool of political propaganda.
This idea was probably created with the help of the native clergy and Mozarab refugees, that is, Christians who had lived under Muslim rule. They were very passionate about the idea of rebuilding the lost political and religious unity of Spain, and King Alfonso III of Asturias seemed like the right candidate to achieve so. The historical context of widespread rebellions in the Emirate of Córdoba is very important to highlight, because in that context the dream of the Reconquista seemed possible to achieve. A contemporary monk expressed this conviction in the following terms: “Christ is our hope that upon the completion in the near future of 170 years from the entrance of the enemy into Spain they will be annihilated and the peace of Christ will be restored to the Holy Church”. This triumphalist optimism of the northern Christians would eventually prove to be wrong in the 9th-10th centuries, but that’s not the issue discussed here.
The point is that it would be false to say that the Reconquista as a political idea is something made up in the 19th century, because we’ve corroborated with literary evidence of the 9th century that the concept existed at least since the reign of Alfonso III of Asturias. Moreover, it’s true that the Hispano-Goths managed to take back for Christianity lands that were Islamized during Muslim rule, and they mainly colonized these Spanish lands with their own people or with the Mozarabs who remained in al-Andalus or who had left al-Andalus and moved to the Christian north.
Common objections to the Reconquista
The most obvious one is that the Reconquista is ideologically terribly one-sided and that it omits the fact that many native Hispano-Goths converted to Islam, so there was no such thing as a national liberation. Secondly, a process that spans eight centuries cannot be called Reconquista, and you cannot treat the Muslims as occupiers since they were present in the Iberian Peninsula for centuries. Third objection, there was nothing to reconquer since the Visigothic Kingdom fell when the last pretender, Ardo, was killed in 720. Fourth objection, as I’ve mentioned there is no evidence that Pelayo tried to restore the Visigothic Kingdom in the 8th century. Finally, the lack of continuing commitment on the part of Christian rulers and the tactical alliances between Muslim and Christian states are often cited as arguments to reject the Reconquista.
From generation to generation the application of the crusade Reconquista ideology varied, it was not an static concept, and sometimes Christians had to accept the supremacy of al-Andalus, while other times they could have conquered more territory but found more profitable to impose parias to the Muslim states, a form of tribute. Therefore, it’s true that some Christian monarchs didn’t care about waging a holy war against Muslims, it’s true that many times Christian rulers fought among themselves, although it’s also true that the Spanish Christian states incorporated in their DNA the crusade idea that Neogothicism represents. Unlike other Christian states, such as England or the Germanic principalities, the Spanish Christian states were at the frontier of a great religious rival, and that defined the national identity of the Iberian Kingdoms, that had a more religious and militaristic component than the average Christian kingdom of Europe. That’s why later Spain under the Catholic Monarchs and the Habsburgs presented itself as the defender of the Christendom against the infidels and the heretics. In the end, the Iberian Christian states won and were eventually unified under one ruler (1580–1640), just as in the Visigothic Kingdom, but only retrospectively could the victorious Reconquista narrative be built.
