WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Reconquista was a centuries-long series of battles by Christian states to expel the Muslims (Moors), who from the 8th century ruled most of the Iberian Peninsula. Visigoths had ruled Spain for two centuries before they were overrun by the Umayyad empire.

Detailed explanation-2: -At the Battle of Tours near Poitiers, France, Frankish leader Charles Martel, a Christian, defeats a large army of Spanish Moors, halting the Muslim advance into Western Europe.

Detailed explanation-3: -Between 1492 and 1610, some 3, 000, 000 Muslims voluntarily left or were expelled from Spain, resettling in North Africa.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Reconquista, the reconquest of Spain, lasted seven centuries, from the 8th century to the 15th century. During that time the Iberian Peninsula was liberated from Muslim rule.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Reconquista began in 718 when King Pelayo of the Visigoths defeated the Muslim army in Alcama at the Battle of Covadonga. This was the first significant victory of the Christians over the Moors. Over the next several hundred years the Christians and the Moors would do battle.

Detailed explanation-6: -Since the Spanish were fighting wars in the Americas, feeling threatened by the Turks raiding along the Spanish coast and by two Morisco revolts in the century since Islam was outlawed in Spain, it seems that the expulsions were a reaction to an internal problem of the stretched Spanish Empire.