On this day in … 1492


The Reconquest of Spain is completed with the fall of the Emirate of Granada. 

By 1482, Islamic rule on the Iberian peninsula was limited to the Emirate of Granada. Covering the southern most coast of modern day Spain, the Emirate was the remaining fragment of an aggressive expansion that had come close to taking the whole of Iberia.

In 1482, the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, launched the final phase of the reconquest by declaring war on Granada. Within a decade, they had completed their mission with the capitulation of the city of Granada on 2 January 1492.

La Rendición de Granada Francisco Pradilla Ortiz [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons