The Muslim forces of the Umayyad dynasty invaded and conquered much of the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century, beginning a 780-year process by Christian forces of recapturing the territory. This period of Spanish history is known as the Reconquista.
By the early 1490s, the tributary state of Granada on the southern Spanish coast was the only remaining Muslim presence on the peninsula. Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille , the Catholic Monarchs, launched war against Granada in 1482. The Islamic territory surrendered on January 2, 1492 and was annexed by Castille.
The Reconquista ended hundreds of years of Muslim influence on Spain, and led to the expulsion and forced conversion of many Muslims remaining in the territories, as well as the Alhambra Decree, which expelled Jews from all territories of the Catholic Monarchs in 1492.
On This Day: Trapped in History 