Description
Students of history often think of 1492 as the year that Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue. However, for observers living in 1492, Columbus’ first voyage did not even make the evening news. The major event of that year was the defeat of Muslim Granada by the Kingdom of Castile and the culmination of the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula by Christian Polities. This lecture will outline the history of the Iberian Peninsula from the Kingdom of the Visigoths, through the Muslim Caliphate, to the Reconquista, and finally to the ascent of Castile as the dominant polity, culture, and linguistic group in Iberia. The Reconquista provided the Castilians with the military experience to dominate the New World Empires, and the social experience in their relationships with Muslims and Jews as ‘the Other’ to set the stage for the Castilians’ treatment of the indigenous peoples of the New World. The marital diplomacy in Europe during this period was also instrumental in determining the directions that the Iberian and other European Polities would follow in the decades following 1492.