The End of the Reconquista and the Rise of Spain and France as Dominant World Powers

The Christian Reconquista, a centuries-long campaign to expel the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula, culminated in 1492 with the fall of Granada, marking the end of Muslim rule in Spain. This victory, alongside France’s consolidation of power, set the stage for both kingdoms to become dominant world powers in the early modern era.

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The Completion of the Reconquista (711–1492)

• The Reconquista began in 711, following the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, and lasted nearly eight centuries.
• The major turning point came with the unification of Castile and Aragon under Isabella I and Ferdinand II, whose marriage in 1469 created a powerful Spanish state.
• The final victory occurred in 1492, when the Catholic Monarchs captured Granada, the last Muslim stronghold, completing the Christian reconquest of Iberia.
• With Muslim rule eliminated, Spain redirected its military and economic resources toward overseas expansion.

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Spain’s Rise as a Global Superpower (16th Century)

• 1492: Columbus’s Voyage – The same year that Granada fell, Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, beginning Spain’s vast overseas empire.
• Wealth from the Americas – The discovery of gold and silver in the New World (Potosí, Zacatecas, and Mexico) made Spain the richest nation in Europe.
• Military Dominance – With its newfound wealth, Spain built the most powerful navy (the Spanish Armada)and maintained the best-trained professional army in Europe.
• Habsburg Empire – Through strategic marriages and conquests, Spain ruled vast territories across Europe, including the Netherlands, Austria, and parts of Italy.
• Religious Authority – Spain became the defender of Catholicism, leading the Counter-Reformation and fighting Protestant nations in the 16th and 17th centuries.

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France: Consolidation and Emergence as a Power

• End of the Hundred Years’ War (1453) – France’s victory against England strengthened royal power, allowing it to focus on internal stability and territorial expansion.
• Francis I and the Italian Wars (1494–1559) – France expanded its influence in Italy and became a major player in European diplomacy and warfare.
• Louis XIV and Absolutism (1643–1715) – By the 17th century, France became the dominant power in Europe, surpassing Spain under the rule of Louis XIV and his centralized monarchy.

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The Legacy of the Reconquista: Spain’s and France’s Global Influence

• Spain’s empire extended across the Americas, parts of Europe, and Asia (the Philippines), creating a global trade network.
• France became the dominant power in continental Europe, shaping politics, culture, and warfare for centuries.
• The Iberian Peninsula was permanently Christianized, and the Muslim and Jewish populations were expelled or forced to convert (the Spanish Inquisition played a key role in this).

Thus, the end of the Reconquista in 1492 launched Spain onto the world stage, making it the first global superpower, while France, through military and political consolidation, emerged as a dominant European force, shaping the future of Western civilization.

 

Southwest Europe (1396–1539 CE)

Aragonese Sea Lanes, Italian Renaissance, and Habsburg–Valois Wars

Geography & Environmental Context

Southwest Europe encompassed Italy (including Sardinia and Sicily), Malta, southern and eastern Spain (Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia), and the Balearic Islands. Anchors spanned the Po Valley and Venetian–Adriatic gateways, the Apennine spine with Tyrrhenian and Adriatic littorals, the grain and volcanic uplands of Sicily, the rugged Sardinian interior, Malta’s limestone plateau astride central sea-lanes, and Spain’s irrigated huertas and ports from Seville–Cádiz (Atlantic–Mediterranean hinge) through Valencia–Barcelona to the Balearics.
Together these corridors provisioned, armed, and cultured Europe’s busiest inland sea.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

Under the Little Ice Age, winters cooled and variability intensified:

• Po Valley & Lombardy: alternating droughts and Po floods unsettled rice and wheat rotations.

• Sicily, Sardinia, southern Spain: recurrent droughts reduced grain and olive yields; citrus and pastoralism buffered loss.

• Valencia–Murcia huertas: Acequia irrigation offset dry years, but torrential riadas periodically destroyed terraces.

• Balearics & Malta: thin soils and rainfall swings required cisterns, terracing, and imported grain.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Italy: Wheat, barley, vines, olives, and, in Lombardy, irrigated rice; urban gardens surrounded the city-states.

• Sicily & Sardinia: Grain, olives, vines, citrus, and livestock; granaries provisioned Italian and Iberian ports.

• Southern & eastern Spain: Andalusian cereals, olives, and vines; Valencian and Murcian sugarcane and mulberry–silk; Catalan wool flocks.

• Islands: Grain, olives, vines, goats, and fisheries sustained mixed economies; harbors provisioned passing fleets.
  Major ports—Venice, Genoa, Naples, Palermo, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Palma, Cagliari—served as collection hubs for Mediterranean and emerging Atlantic commerce.

Technology & Material Culture

• Irrigation & terracing: Acequias, qanat-derived galleries, pozzos and cisterns, and stone-bench terraces stabilized yields on coasts and islands.

• Maritime innovation: Galleys remained indispensable; Italian and Iberian shipyards developed round-hulled naos and early caravels; bronze cannon revolutionized siege and naval warfare.

• Manufactures: Florentine wool and silk, Venetian glass and books (the Aldine Press), Valencian silk and sugar, Catalan and Neapolitan shipbuilding.

• Architecture & arts: Gothic–Renaissance transitions—Brunelleschi’s dome, Alberti’s façades, Venetian palazzi; Spanish Mudéjar and early Plateresque; island watchtowers and coastal walls.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Aragonese thalassocracy: The Barcelona–Valencia–Balearics–Sardinia–Sicily–Naples chain formed a western Mediterranean empire later absorbed by Habsburg Spain.

• Italian sea-lanes: Venice and Genoa dominated Levantine and North African trade; Apennine passes linked inland production to ports.

• Iberian hinge: Seville–Cádiz bridged Atlantic and Mediterranean routes after 1492, prefiguring global circuits of silver and spice.

• Islands: Malta, Sardinia, and the Balearics provisioned convoys and guarded corsair-prone straits.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Renaissance humanism: Florence, Rome, and Venice led Europe’s artistic renewal; courts of Naples, Ferrara, and Urbino radiated taste into Iberia and the islands.

• Catholic Christendom: Rome remained pilgrimage center and patron of arts; confraternities and mendicant orders structured devotion.

• Iberian transformations: The Fall of Granada (1492) ended Nasrid rule; the Inquisition and expulsions reshaped Andalusian society; Valencian and Catalan towns mixed mercantile realism with reformist thought.

• Islands: Malta, blending Sicilian, Catalan, and Arabic legacies, was granted in 1530 to the Knights Hospitaller as a new crusading bastion.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Cereal–legume rotations, vine–olive intercropping, chestnut economies in uplands, and rice paddies in irrigated lowlands spread risk.
Huerta canals and terrace systems were continuously maintained; state granaries and charitable confraternities mitigated dearth; fisheries and salted staples balanced harvest failures.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

• Aragonese expansion: Alfonso V (1442) united Naples with Aragon’s sea empire.

• Italian Wars (1494–1559): France, Spain, and the Empire contested Italy—Fornovo (1495), Cerignola (1503), Agnadello (1509), Pavia (1525), and the Sack of Rome (1527) redefined European warfare and diplomacy.

• Corsair & Ottoman pressure: Raids struck Sicily, Sardinia, Valencia, and the Balearics; Preveza (1538) confirmed Ottoman naval mastery in the east.

• Iberian union: The crowns of Aragon and Castile (1479) created a Spanish monarchy projecting power across the peninsula and into the Mediterranean.

Transition

By 1539 CE, Southwest Europe was a crucible of power and culture. Habsburg Spain controlled Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia; Venice and Genoa mediated East–West trades under Ottoman pressure; Malta under the Knights became a bulwark; Valencia–Barcelona and Italian ports thrived on commerce and shipbuilding. Terracing, irrigation, and maritime provisioning sustained populations amid climatic volatility. Renaissance brilliance endured even as corsairs and cannon ushered in a new Mediterranean order.

Mediterranean Southwest Europe (1396–1539 CE): Aragonese Sea Lanes, Italian Renaissance, and Habsburg–Valois Wars

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Mediterranean Southwest Europe includes Italy (including Sardinia and Sicily), Malta, southern and eastern Spain (Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia), and the Balearic Islands. Anchors span the Po Valley and Venetian–Adriatic gateways, the Apennine spine with Tyrrhenian and Adriatic littorals, the grain and volcanic uplands of Sicily, the rugged Sardinian interior, Malta’s limestone plateau astride central sea-lanes, and Spain’s irrigated huertas and ports from Seville–Cádiz (Atlantic–Mediterranean hinge) through Valencia–Barcelonato the Balearics. Together, these corridors fed and armed Europe’s busiest inland sea.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

Under the Little Ice Age, winters were cooler and variability sharper:

• Po Valley & northern Italy: alternating droughts and Po floods unsettled wheat/rice rotations; foggy winters extended.

• Sicily, Sardinia, southern Spain: periodic droughts dented wheat and olive yields; citrus and pastoralism buffered shortfalls.

• Valencian/Murcian huertas: canal and acequia irrigation moderated dry spells; occasional torrential floods (riadas) damaged terraces.

• Balearics & Malta: thin soils and rainfall swings drove reliance on cisterns, terracing, and imported grain in lean years.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Italy: Wheat, barley, vines, and olives dominated; rice spread in Lombardy; urban gardens ringed city-states.

• Sicily & Sardinia: Grain, olives, vines, citrus, pastoral flocks; granaries supplied Italian and Iberian ports.

• Southern & eastern Spain: Andalusian cereals, olives, vines; Valencia/Murcia grew rice, sugarcane, mulberry–silk; Catalan uplands raised sheep for wool.

• Balearics & Malta: Mixed grain, olives, vines, goats; fisheries vital; harbors provisioned passing fleets.
  Port cities—Venice, Genoa, Naples, Palermo, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Palma, Cagliari—functioned as collection and redistribution hubs for Mediterranean and, increasingly, Atlantic trade.

Technology & Material Culture

• Irrigation & terracing: acequias, qanat-derived galleries, pozzos/cisterns, stone-walled benches stabilized yields on coasts and islands.

• Maritime technology: galleys remained the workhorse; Italian and Iberian yards developed round-hulled naos and early caravels; bronze cannon transformed siege and naval warfare.

• Manufactures: Florentine wool and silk; Venetian glass and print (Aldine press); Valencian silk and sugar; Catalan and Neapolitan shipyards.

• Architecture & arts: Gothic to Renaissance transitions—Brunelleschi’s dome, Alberti’s façades, Venetian palazzi; Spanish Mudéjar and early Plateresque; island watchtowers and coastal walls.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Aragonese thalassocracy: Barcelona–Valencia–Balearics–Sardinia–Sicily–Naples stitched a western Mediterranean network later inherited by Habsburg Spain.

• Italian sea-lanes: Venice and Genoa collected Levantine and North African wares; peninsular roads (Via Emilia, Apennine passes) bound inland cities to ports.

• Iberian hinge: Seville–Cádiz bridged Atlantic and Mediterranean circuits after 1492; Atlantic silver would later amplify these flows.

• Island waypoints: Malta, Sardinia, and the Balearics provisioned convoys and guarded straits against corsairs.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Renaissance humanism: Florence, Rome, and Venice fostered painting, sculpture, architecture, philology; courts of Naples, Ferrara, and Urbino radiated styles into Iberia and the islands.

• Catholic Christendom: Papal Rome remained a pilgrimage and patronage center; confraternities, processions, and mendicant orders structured urban piety.

• Iberian transformations: The Fall of Granada (1492) ended Nasrid rule; the Inquisition and expulsion/forced conversion reshaped Andalusian society; Valencian and Catalan towns mixed mercantile pragmatism with reforming currents.

• Island identities: Genoese, Aragonese, and local elites fused on Corsica/Sardinia; Malta blended Sicilian, Catalan, and Arabic legacies—until 1530, when it became the fief of the Knights Hospitaller.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Risk-spreading agriculture: cereal–legume rotations, vine–olive intercropping, and chestnut economies in uplands; rice paddies where water allowed.

• Water management: canal dredging (Po/Adige), huerta maintenance (Valencia), terrace/cistern upkeep (Malta, Balearics, Ligurian and Amalfi coasts).

• Urban buffers: state granaries, grain imports, and charitable confraternities mitigated dearth; fisheries and salted staples bridged bad harvests.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

• Hundred Years’ War (to 1453): peripheral raids reached Languedoc and Catalonia, nudging Aragonese naval policy.

• Conquest of Naples (1442): Alfonso V of Aragon knit Naples to the Crown of Aragon’s sea empire.

• Italian Wars (1494–1559): France, Spain, and the Empire fought over Italian hegemony—

  • Battle of Fornovo (1495) checked Charles VIII’s withdrawal;

  • Battle of Cerignola (1503) (Apulia) showcased gunpowder infantry, securing Spanish control in southern Italy;

  • Battle of Agnadello (1509) humbled Venice on the terraferma;

  • Battle of Pavia (1525) delivered a decisive Habsburg victory and Francis I’s capture;

  • the Sack of Rome (1527) shattered papal prestige and artists’ security.

• Western Mediterranean contest: Barbary and Ottoman corsairs raided Sicily, Sardinia, Balearics, and Valencia; Rhodes (1522) fell to the Ottomans, redirecting the Hospitallers to Malta (1530); Preveza (1538) cemented Ottoman naval dominance in the eastern basin with echoes westward.

• Iberian unification: The crowns of Aragon and Castile united (1479), projecting Spanish power across the peninsula, Italy, and the sea.

Transition

By 1539 CE, Mediterranean Southwest Europe was a crucible of power and culture. Habsburg Spain controlled Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia; Venice and Genoa mediated eastern and western trades under growing Habsburg and Ottoman pressure; Malta stood newly under the Knights as a central bastion; Valencia–Barcelona and Italian ports thrummed with commerce and shipbuilding. Despite climatic swings, terracing, irrigation, and maritime provisioning sustained populations. Renaissance patronage glowed even as Italian Wars and corsair/Ottoman threats remade the political seascape—setting up a long sixteenth century of Spanish predominance and Mediterranean contest.

The marriage of royal cousins Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516) and Isabella of Castile (1451-1504) in 1469 eventually brings stability to both kingdoms.

Isabella's niece, Juana, bloodily disputes her succession to the throne in a conflict in which the rival claimants are given assistance by outside powers—Isabella by Aragon and Juana by her suitor, the king of Portugal.

The Treaty of Alcacovas ends the war in September 1479, and as Ferdinand has succeeded his father in Aragon earlier in the same year, it is possible to link Castile with Aragon.

Both Isabella and Ferdinand understand the importance of unity; together they effect institutional reform in Castile and leave Spain one of the best administered countries in Europe.

Even with the personal union of the Castilian and the Aragonese crowns, Castile, Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia remained constitutionally distinct political entities, and they retain separate councils of state and parliaments.

Ferdinand, who had received his political education in federalist Aragon, brings a new emphasis on constitutionalism and a respect for local fueros to Castile, where he is king consort (1479-1504) and continues as regent after Isabella's death in 1504.

Greatly admired by Italian political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), Ferdinand is one of the most skillful diplomats in an age of great diplomats, and he assigns to Castile its predominant role in the dual monarchy.

Ferdinand and Isabella resume the Reconquest, dormant for more than two hundred years, and in 1492 they capture Granada, earning for themselves the title of Catholic Kings.

Atlantic Southwest Europe (1396–1539 CE): Estuaries, Shipyards, and the First Oceanic Empires

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Atlantic Southwest Europe includes continental Portugal and Spain’s Atlantic façade from the Gulf of Cádiz to the Bay of Biscay—the Tagus, Sado, Mondego, Douro, and Minho estuaries; Portugal’s Alentejo and Algarve coasts; Spain’s Guadalquivir–Cádiz seaboard; and the Cantabrian–Galician rías (A Coruña, Vigo, Gijón, Santander) and Basque capes (Bilbao–San Sebastián). These shorelines and river corridors bound maritime towns to grain-and-vine interiors and iron-rich uplands.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age brought cooler winters, stormier seas, and variable rains:

• Iberian west & south coasts: more frequent Atlantic gales and bar shifts at estuary mouths (Douro, Tagus, Guadalquivir), alternately silting and scouring channels.

• Northwest (Galicia–Asturias–Cantabria): heavy rainfall and rough seas; rich upwelling sustained fisheries.

• Interior hinterlands: periodic droughts hit Alentejo and Andalusian cereal zones; frosts checked vines and olives in bad years; good years yielded ample wheat, wine, and oil.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Rural belts: Wheat, rye, barley, olives, and vines; cork oak montado in Alentejo; gardens and orchards along river terraces.

• Fisheries: Sardine and tunny on the Portuguese and Andalusian shelves; cod and whale began to matter for Basque fleets in the early 16th century. Saltworks (Aveiro, Setúbal, Cádiz) underwrote fish preservation and trade.

• Ports & river towns: Lisbon (Tagus) and Porto (Douro); Seville and Cádiz (Guadalquivir–Cádiz); A Coruña–Vigo (rías), Santander, Bilbao and San Sebastián on the Bay of Biscay; Viana do Castelo, Figueira da Foz, Setúbal along Portugal’s coast. Urban workshops produced sails, rope, barrels, and victuals for ocean-going fleets.

Technology & Material Culture

• Shipbuilding & navigation: The caravel (lateen rig, shoal-draft) matured on Portugal’s south coast; rounder naos carried freight across oceans. Magnetic compass, sternpost rudder, astrolabe, cross-staff, portolan charts, and toleta de marteloio tables improved blue-water navigation.

• Maritime institutions: In Portugal, the Order of Christ’s revenues (successor to the Templars) and the crown’s Casa da Guiné and later Casa da Índia in Lisbon centralized Atlantic/Indian trade. Basque iron and timber supported Biscayan yards.

• Urban & courtly arts: Manueline architecture (rope, coral, armillary motifs) crowned Lisbon/Belém; Mudéjar–Plateresque blended in Andalusia; guild crafts (textiles, leather, ceramics) supplied ships and cities.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Estuary arteries: The Tagus, Douro, and Guadalquivir funneled grain, wine, oil, salt fish, and hides from interior plains to oceanic convoys; return flows brought spices, gold, and slaves by the early 1500s.

• Atlantic lanes: Portugal’s Volta do Mar looped down the African coast and home via mid-ocean westerlies; Andalusian–Cantabrian coasting linked Biscay iron and salt fish to southern shipyards and markets.

• Pilgrimage & fairs: Santiago de Compostela drew pilgrims through Galician ports; Lisbon and Seville fairs knit merchants from Italy, Flanders, and the Maghreb.

• Imperial routes (first phase): After 1498, spice fleets sailed India–Lisbon; after 1492, Castilian fleets used the Guadalquivir–Seville corridor to the Caribbean.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Religious life: Cathedrals and confraternities structured urban devotion; seafarers’ brotherhoods honored Our Lady of Good Voyage; shrines dotted headlands and capes (e.g., Cape St. Vincent).

• Court and chronicle: Portuguese chronicles (Gomes Eanes de Zurara) celebrated exploration; Iberian courts patronized cartography and cosmography.

• Communal identities: Fisher guilds, ship carpenters, ropewalkers, coopers, and salt-pan communities developed strong customs and saints’ days; Basque whalers forged distinctive sea rituals.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Risk-spreading portfolios: Mixed farming (cereal–vine–olive), stock-raising, and salt-fish curing buffered bad harvests; riverine mills and terraces stabilized yields.

• Harbor works: Jetties and dredging (Lisbon, Porto, Seville) fought bar siltation; salt granaries and fish warehouses bridged lean seasons.

• Maritime provisioning: Biscayan and Portuguese fleets salted fish and whale meat; victualing yards stockpiled biscuit, wine, oil, and salted pork for oceanic voyages.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

• Iberian realignments: The Conquest of Ceuta (1415) opened Portugal’s North African gateway and Atlantic thrust; the War of the Castilian Succession (1475–1479)—including the Battle of Toro (1476)—ended with the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479), fixing early Atlantic spheres between Castile and Portugal. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided extra-European worlds meridionally.

• Oceanic breakout: Vasco da Gama’s voyage (1497–1499) linked the Tagus to India; Pedro Álvares Cabral (1500) reached Brazil; Portugal’s Estado da Índia took shape after the Battle of Diu (1509) and the Capture of Malacca (1511), routing Eastern spices to Lisbon.

• Castile’s Atlantic: From 1492, Columbus’s voyages (out of Palos/Cádiz) opened Caribbean routes; Seville’s Casa de la Contratación (from 1503) regulated fleets.

• Privateering & defense: Biscay–Galician coasts armed against English, Breton, and Norman raiders; corsair warfare flickered in the Bay of Biscay and off the Algarve.

Transition

By 1539 CE, Atlantic Southwest Europe had transformed from a cluster of estuarine towns into the launchpad of two oceanic empires. Lisbon and Seville–Cádiz rose as global entrepôts; Biscayan and Galician ports provisioned fleets and pioneered whaling and Atlantic cod. Inland cereals, vines, and olives still fed the system, but caravel and nao had redrawn horizons—binding Iberian estuaries to Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and setting the stage for a sixteenth century of maritime hegemony and imperial rivalry.

The Granada War, a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1492, during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada, is not a continuous effort, but a series of seasonal campaigns launched in spring and broken off in winter.

The Granadans are crippled by internal conflict and civil war, while the Christians are generally unified.

The war also sees the effective use of artillery by the Christians to rapidly conquer towns that would otherwise have required a long siege.

The ten-year war is not a continuous effort, but a series of seasonal campaigns launched in spring and broken off in winter.

The Granadans are crippled by internal conflict and civil war, while the Christians are generally unified.

The war also sees the effective use of artillery by the Christians to rapidly conquer towns that would otherwise have required a long siege.

The first reliable description of the disease known as typhus appears in 1489 during the Spanish siege of Baza against the Moors during the War of Granada (1482–1492).

These accounts include descriptions of fever; red spots over arms, back, and chest; attention deficit, progressing to delirium; and gangrenous sores and the associated smell of rotting flesh.

During the siege, the Spaniards lose three thousand men to enemy action, but an additional seventeen thousand die of typhus.

The Emirate of Granada has been the sole Muslim state in al-Andalus—the Arab name for Iberia—for more than a century, the Spanish Christians having already conquered he other remnant states (taifas) of the once mighty Caliphate of Córdoba.

Pessimism for Granada's future existed long before its ultimate fall.

Still, Granada is wealthy and powerful, and the Christian kingdoms had been divided and fight among themselves.

Granada's problems had begun to worsen after the death of Emir Yusuf III in 1417.

Succession struggles ensured that Granada has been in an almost constant low-level civil war.

Clan loyalties are stronger than allegiance to the Emir, making consolidation of power difficult.

Often, the only territory the Emir really controls is the city of Granada itself.

At times, the emir does not even control all the city, but rather one rival emir would control the Alhambra, and another the Albayzín, the most important district of Granada.

This internal fighting has greatly weakened the state.

The economy has declined, with Granada's once world-famous porcelain manufacture now disrupted and challenged by the Christian town of Manises near Valencia, in Aragon.

Despite the weakening economy, taxes are still imposed at their earlier high rates to support Granada's extensive defenses and large army.

Ordinary Granadans pay triple the taxes of (non-tax-exempt) Castilians.

The heavy taxes that Emir Abu-l-Hasan Ali has imposed contribut greatly to his unpopularity.

These taxes do at least support a respected army; Hasan has been successful in putting down Christian revolts in his lands, and some observers estimate he can muster as many as seven thousand horsemen.

The frontier between Granada and the Castilian lands of Andalusia is in a constant state of flux.

Raids across the border are common, as are intermixing alliances between local nobles on both sides of the frontier.

Relations are governed by occasional truces and demands for tribute should one side have been seen to overstep their bounds.

Neither country's central government intervenes or controls the warfare much.

The deatt of King Henry IV of Castile in December 1474 has sparked the War of the Castilian Succession between Henry's daughter Joanna la Beltraneja and Henry's half-sister Isabella.

The war had raged from 1475–1479, setting Isabella's supporters and the Crown of Aragon against Joanna's supporters, Portugal, and France.

During this time, the frontier with Granada had been practically ignored; the Castilians did not even bother to ask for or obtain reparation for a raid in 1477.

Truces had been agreed upon in 1475, 1476, and 1478.

In 1479, the Succession War had concluded with Isabella victorious.

As Isabella had married Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469, this means that the two powerful kingdoms of Castile and Aragon will now stand united, free from the inter-Christian warring that has helped Granada survive Abu l-Hasan Ali, son of Said, had become sultan of Granada in 1464, and in 1477 he had refused to pay tribute to the Crown of Castile.

The truce of 1478 is still theoretically in effect when Granada launches a surprise attack on the fortress of Zahara de la Sierra, near Rond,a in December 1481, as part of a reprisal for a Christian raid.

The town falls, and the population is enslaved.

This attack proves to be a great provocation, and factions in favor of war in Andalusia use it to rally support for a counterstrike, quickly moving to take credit for it, and back a wider war.

The Marquis of Cádiz, in retaliation for the sudden seizure of the Zahara fortress by the emirate of Granada, seizes the Moorish town of Alhama, close to Granada, in a similar surprise attack on February 28, 1482.

The seizure of Alhama and its subsequent royal endorsement is usually said to be the formal beginning of the Granada War.

Abu Hasan attemps to retake Alhama by siege in March, but is unsuccessful.

Reinforcements from the rest of Castile and Aragon avert the possibility of retaking Alhama in April 1482; King Ferdinand himself formally taesk command at Alhama on May 14, 1482.

Ferdinand and his queen Isabella, following his capture of the Moorish town of Alhama, prepare to besiege Moorish-held Medina Lawsa, launching a fleet to thwart sea borne Moorish reinforcements, but the Moorish land forces defeat Ferdinand’s army at the Battle of Loja on July 1, 1482.

This setback to the Spanish Christians is balanced by a twist that will prove to aid them greatly: on the same day as Loja is relieved, Abu Hasan's son, Abu Abdallah or Boabdil, rebels and styled himself Emir Muhammad XII.