The Washington times., 1938-10-12

dramatic story in ITSELF and espe- ~
cially so inasmuch as it broke day ~
or two before Columbus Day. 1888. -
The Moors mixed up with the - G
wild and bloody history of Spain; Co.
lumbus is rather intimately mixed up as@NN
with the history of America; here
we have young American of prom
inent parentage going to Spain to Christopher Columbus
fight what he believes to be the right side in the Span
ish civil war; and repeatedly getting killed by the Moors
back again in Spain after absence of some 44O years.
It was in the year I'll A. D. that the Moors first
crossed the Straits of Gibraltar to challenge the
of the Visgoths who had invaded Spain from the north
$50 years before and set themselves up the nations
rulers Technically the invasion religious crusade
by the Mohammedans, who by I'll had swept through
to North Africa in the holy against all other religions
which the prophet Mohammed had enjoined on them.
Actually, the motley of Arabs Syrians and Berbers
that invaded Spain was after gold gems, land and
women.
1t took the Moors seven years to conquer Spain,
with the help of various Vsgothic leaders who
more than willing to be bribed with Moorish gold and
promises of continued power If the
4,zzO Ie0TS Moors should win. Many name
c. familiar to 1868 readers of Span
9O Wv ish war news figured in that 711-18
war; too-Salamanca, Alcala, Cordova, Merida.
The Moors swept the Pyrenees in 718, and were
absorbing France until they stopped at Poitiers in
732 by Charles Martel After that their power shrank
back into Spain again. But they stayed pretty we'll put
in Spain for 760 years more.
Gradually the fragments of the old Visgohic Christian
states in the north Spain pulled themselves together
and the history of Spain from about 800 to 1892 mostly
story struggles between Christian and Moor for pos
session of the peninsula
We have long had theory that this seven-century
fight chiefly religious in character, must account for
much of the intensity of faith that characterized the
Spanish church in the Middle Ages AMI later. When
church has had to fight for it's life against fanatics be-
longing to another church, it is not likely to view with
calm benevoence any one who disagrees with it. The
reasoning might apply to the Irish, and their long
rebellion against the British landlords and their esab
lished Church of Ireland.
Gradually the Christians pressed the Moors south
ward In the Thirteenth Century all Spain except Gran
ada and few seaports Christianized by the two
famous Spanish kings, Ferdinand
Big EUentS of III and James the Conqueror
The Yonr 1902 1t the fighting sovereigns,
Ferdinand and Isabella, who (1)
completed the reconquest of Spain with the capture of
Granada JAM a. 1892 and (2) financed Christopher Co.
lumbus in his first voyage of discovery that year.
The Granada victory put 100 years of fight into
the Spanards Their empire expanded by into Italy,
by marriage into France They most of South
America and considerable parts of North America In
$685. nnetyfour years after Columbus discovered Amer
1c the Spanish Armada met up with Sir Francis Drake
off the coast of England, and was shattered.
With the Armada went Spains standing frst-class
power-and the Spaniards began to snk the British
began their rise to their present
of the largest and most powerful empire in world history
The story of Columbus is well known. He made four
voyages to the New World altogether; arrested and
brought home from of these in chans was vndcated
was finally buried with honors at Vaadold and lies
in the Cathedral of Seville.
He great man, of the worlds immortals; and
If all our holidays were appropriate and justified
Columbus Day. we'd probably observe fewer holidays.
(Fom the New Daily
WASHINGTON Moods