Spain in the Middle Ages

Spain in the Middle Ages is a period in the history of what would eventually later become Spain that began in the 5th century following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ended with the beginning of the early modern period in 1492.

The history of Spain and Portugal is marked by waves of conquerors who brought their distinct cultures to the Iberian Peninsula. After the migration of the Vandals and Alans down the Mediterranean coast of Hispania from 408, the history of medieval Hispania begins with the Iberian kingdom of the Arianist Visigoths (507–711), who were converted to Catholicism along with their king Reccared in 587. Visigothic culture can be seen as a phenomenon of Late Antiquity as much as part of the Age of Migrations.

From Northern Africa in 711, the Muslim Umayyad Caliphate crossed into the Iberian Peninsula, at the invitation of a Visigothic clan to assist it in rising against King Roderic. Over the period 711–788, the Umayyads conquered most of the lands of the Visigothic kingdom of Hispania and established the territory known as Al-Andalus. A revolt during the conquest established the Christian Kingdom of Asturias in the north of the Peninsula.

Much of the period is marked by conflict between the Muslim and Christian states, referred to as the Reconquista, or the Reconquest (i.e., The Christians "reconquering" their lands as a religious crusade). The border between Muslim and Christian lands wavered southward through 700 years of war, which marked the Peninsula as a militarily contested space. The medieval centuries also witnessed episodes of warfare between the Christian states and between the Muslim taifas, successor states of the Caliphate of Cordoba.