On this date… 2 January 1492
the Emirate of Granada surrenders to Spanish forces
“In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue…”
If you ever find yourself in the Salon de Pasos Perdidos of the Spanish Senate, you will want to look for a large oil painting called “The Capitulation of Granada” by Francisco Pradilla Ortiz. Though Ortiz painted it nearly 400 years after the fact, and is an idealized portrait of the scene, the painting depicts two armies separated by a dirt road. On the left, a plain-dressed army of Muslims from Granada, and on the right an ornately-dressed mounted army of the Catholic monarchs from Aragon and Castile. A man on horseback, Muhammad XII, the emirate of Granada with its famous palace the Alhambra, approached from the left with a large key in his hand. He formally surrendered the last Muslim stronghold in Spain.
The Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile were the last in a long line of Spanish imperials who had been fighting to conquer the Iberian peninsula, known as al-Andalus in Arabic, or translated as Andalusia, from the Muslim forces that had ruled the land for nearly eight centuries (more on the Muslim conquest of these lands at later dates). This surrender ended the Granada War that had begun in 1482 which resulted in a siege of the city in 1491, ending with a treaty signing on 25 November 1491.
Not only did the treaty end a centuries long campaign which came to be known as the Reconquista, it also provided a set of rights for the Moors – a term for Muslims in Spain and throughout Europe. It was supposed to allow Muslim inhabitants to continue living in the area and continue practicing their religion. Unfortunately, it did not grant the same rights to native Jews in the area who were forced to choose between conversion or expulsion from the lands. The religious freedoms were short lived, and by 1499, the treaty had begun to unravel which resulted in the eventual forced expulsion of all Jews and Muslims by the mid-16th century.
After the surrender with the centuries-long campaign of war ended and little else to appease their strong armies Ferdinand and Catherine turned their eyes towards the west and the lands that lay beyond. Land routes to Asia, with its famed riches in spices and treasures, had long been established, and there was hope there could be a shorter route by sailing west (hence the term, “the Indies” for what is now called the Caribbean).
After much lobbying and many previous failed attempts throughout Europe, Ferdinand and Isabella finally agreed to fund the westward journey of exploration for Christopher Columbus. Instead of a quicker route to Asia he stumbled upon a new continent unknown to the general European populace, and would change the world forever. All because the Catholic monarchs couldn’t live in peace with their Muslim compatriots, and fought long wars to rid the peninsula of them.