718/722: The Battle of Covadonga as the Beginning of the Reconquista in the Iberian Peninsula
The Reconquista was a centuries long period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula that followed a surge of Muslim Berber invaders from northern Africa into what would eventually become Spain and Portugal. Also called Moors, the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula was nearly total by the year 718 and led to the establishment of the emirate of Al-Andalus.
The Reconquista itself is said to have begun with the victory of Pelagius of Asturias at the battle of Covadonga. The first monarch of the Asturian Kingdom, Pelagius was a Visigoth noble and a grandson of a former King of Hispania when it had still been a purely Visigoth posession. The battle itself was in response to a drastic increase in taxes by the Emir of the time, one Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi. Mobilizing many dispossessed refugees and combatants from the south, Pelagius refused to pay the taxes levied on non-Muslims and moved to assault Umayyad garrisons in the area. These successes would culminate with the expulsion of the Umayyad provincial governor and the Umayyad commanders Alqama and Munuza marching to put down the rebellion.
