page_title: History of Spain
section_title: Warfare between Muslims and Christians
hierarchical_section_title: History of Spain / Islamic al-Andalus and the Christian Reconquest (8th–15th centuries) / Warfare between Muslims and Christians
caption_attribution_description: Battle of the Reconquista from the Cantigas de Santa María
context_page_description: The history of Spain dates back to the Middle Ages. In 1516, Habsburg Spain unified a number of disparate predecessor kingdoms; its modern form of a constitutional monarchy was introduced in 1813, and the current democratic constitution dates to 1978. After the completion of the Reconquista, the Crown of Castile began to explore across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, expanding into the New World and marking the beginning of the Golden Age under the Spanish Empire. The kingdoms of Spain were united under Habsburg rule in 1516, that unified the Crown of Castile, the Crown of Aragon and smaller kingdoms under the same rule. Until the 1650s, Habsburg Spain was among the most powerful states in the world.
  During this period, Spain was involved in all major European wars, including the Italian Wars, the Eighty Years' War, the Thirty Years' War, and the Franco-Spanish War. In the later 17th century Spanish power began to decline, after the death of the last Habsburg.
  The former Spanish Empire overseas quickly disintegrated with the Latin American wars of independence.
context_section_description: Medieval Spain was the scene of almost constant warfare between Muslims and Christians.
  The Taifa kingdoms lost ground to the Christian realms in the north. After the loss of Toledo in 1085, the Muslim rulers reluctantly invited the Almoravides, who invaded Al-Andalus from North Africa and established an empire. In the 12th century the Almoravid empire broke up again, only to be taken over by the Almohad invasion, who were defeated by an alliance of the Christian kingdoms in the decisive Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. By 1250, nearly all of Hispania was back under Christian rule with the exception of the Muslim kingdom of Granada.
caption: A battle of the Reconquista from the Cantigas de Santa Maria
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