Granada War The Granada War ( ) was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1492 , during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs " ( los Reyes Católicos ) " Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon , against the Nasrid dynasty ' s Emirate of Granada . It ended with the defeat of Granada and its annexation by Castile , ending Islamic rule , Al - Andalus , on the Iberian peninsula and completing the Reconquista . The ten - year war was not a continuous effort : it was a series of seasonal campaigns launched in the spring and postponed in the winter . The Granadans were crippled by internal conflict and civil war ; meanwhile the Christians were generally unified . The war also saw the effective use of artillery by the Christians to rapidly conquer towns that would have required a long siege otherwise . The decisive Battle of Granada concluded the war . On January 2 , 1492 Muhammad XII of Granada ( King Boabdil ) surrendered the Emirate of Granada , the city of Granada , and the Alhambra palace . It is still celebrated every year on that date by the City Council of Granada . The war was a joint project between Isabella ' s Kingdom of Castile and León , and Ferdinand ' s Crown of Aragon . The bulk of the troops and funds for the war came from Castile , and Granada was annexed into Castile ' s lands . The Crown of Aragon was less important : apart from the presence of King Ferdinand himself , Aragon provided naval collaboration , guns , and some financial loans . Aristocrats were offered the allure of new lands , while Ferdinand and Isabella centralized and consolidated power . The aftermath of the war saw religious and ethnic differences sharpen , as the Jews and the Muslims were forced to either convert to Christianity or be exiled . This , too , helped create the future Spain by defining it as the guardian of Christianity ; tensions flared between " old Christians " and " new Christians " ( " conversos " ) , those who had converted . Iberia and Al - Andalus in the late 15th century . The Emirate of Granada had been the sole Muslim state in Al - Andalus - Iberia - for more than a century by the time of the Granada War . The other remnant states of the Caliphate of Córdoba ( " taifa " ) had already been conquered by the Reconquista . Pessimism for Granada ' s future existed even then ; in 1400 , Ibn Hudayl wrote " Is Granada not enclosed between a violent sea and an enemy terrible in arms , both of which press on its people day and night ? " Still , Granada was wealthy and powerful , and the Christian kingdoms were divided and fought amongst themselves . Granada ' s problems began to worsen after Emir Yusuf III ' s death in 1417 . Succession struggles made it such that Granada was in an almost constant low - level civil war . Loyalty to clan was stronger than that to the Emir , making consolidation of power difficult . Often , the only territory the Emir really controlled was the city of Granada itself . At times , the emir did not even control all the city , but rather one emir would control the Alhambra , and another the Albaicín , the most important district of Granada . This internal fighting greatly weakened the state . The economy declined , with Granada ' s once world - famous porcelain now disrupted and challenged by Manises near Valencia . Taxes were still imposed at their earlier high rates to support Granada ' s extensive defenses and large army , despite the weakening economy . Ordinary Granadans paid triple the taxes of ( non - tax - exempt ) Castilians . The heavy taxes that Emir Abu - l - Hasan Ali ( 1464 – 85 ) imposed contributed greatly to his unpopularity . These taxes did at least support a respected army ; Hasan was successful in putting down Christian revolts in his lands , and some observers estimated he could muster as many as 7 , 000 horsemen . The frontier between Granada and Andalusia was in a constant state of flux , " neither in peace nor in war . " Raids across the border were common , as were intermixing alliances between local nobles on both sides of the frontier . Relations were governed by occasional truces and demands for tribute should one side have been seen to overstep their bounds . Neither country ' s central government intervened or controlled the warfare much . King Henry IV of Castile died in December 1474 , setting off the War of the Castilian Succession between Henry ' s daughter Juana la Beltraneja and Henry ' s half - sister Isabella . The war raged from 1475 – 1479 , setting Isabella ' s supporters and the Crown of Aragon against Juana ' s supporters , Portugal , and France . During this time , the frontier with Granada was practically ignored ; the Castilians did not even bother to ask for or obtain reparation for a raid in 1477 . Truces between the sides were agreed upon in 1475 , 76 , and 78 . In 1479 , the Succession War concluded with Isabella victorious . As Isabella had married Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469 , this meant that the two powerful kingdoms of Castile and Aragon would now stand united , free from inter - Christian war which had helped Granada survive . Chronology . Provocations and responses . The truce of 1478 was still theoretically in effect when Granada launched a surprise attack against Zahara in December , 1481 , as part of a reprisal for a Christian raid . The town fell , and the population was enslaved . This attack proved to be a great provocation , and factions in favor of war in Andalusia used it to rally support for a counterstrike , quickly moving to take credit for it , and backed a wider war . The seizure of Alhama and its subsequent royal endorsement is usually said to be the formal beginning of the Granada War . Abu Hasan attempted to retake Alhama by siege in March , but was unsuccessful . Reinforcements from the rest of Castile and Aragon closed off the possibility of retaking Alhama in April 1482 ; King Ferdinand himself formally took command at Alhama on May 14 , 1482 . The Christians next tried to besiege Loja , Granada , but failed to take the town . This setback was balanced by a twist that would prove to aid them greatly , though : on the same day as Loja ' s relief , Abu Hasan ' s son , Boabdil , rebelled and styled himself Emir Muhammad XII . The war continued into 1483 . Abu Hasan ' s brother , Al - Zagal , defeated the Christian army near Malaga . However , at the battle of Axarquia , the Christians were able to defeat and capture King Boabdil . Ferdinand II and Isabella I had previously not been intent on conquering all of Granada . With the capture of King Boabdil , though , Ferdinand decided to use Boabdil to conquer Granada entirely . In a letter of August 1483 , Ferdinand wrote " To put Granada in division and destroy it We have decided to free him . . . He [ Boabdil ] has to make war on his father . " With Boabdil ' s release , now as a pseudo - Christian ally , the Granadan civil war would continue . A Granadan chronicler commented that Boabdil ' s capture was " the cause of the fatherland ' s destruction . " In 1485 , the fortunes of the Granadan internal conflict shifted yet again . Boabdil was expelled from the Albayzín , his base of power , by Hasan ' s brother al - Zagal . Al - Zagal also took command of the nation itself , dethroning his aging brother who died shortly thereafter . Boabdil was obliged to flee to Ferdinand and Isabella ' s protection . The continuing division within the Muslim ranks and the cunning of the Marquis of Cádiz allowed the western reaches of Granada to be seized with unusual speed in 1485 . Ronda fell to him after a mere fifteen days , thanks to his negotiations with the city ' s leaders . Ronda ' s fall allowed Marbella , a base of the Granadan fleet , to come into Christian hands next . Boabdil was soon released from Christian protection to resume his bid for control of Granada . For the next three years , he would act as functionally one of Ferdinand and Isabella ' s vassals . He offered the promise of limited independence for Granada and peace with the Christians to the citizenry ; from the Catholic Monarchs , he extracted the title of Duke for whatever cities he could control . Seizure of Málaga . Málaga , the chief seaport of Granada , was the main objective of the Castilian forces in 1487 . Granadan leader al - Zagal was slow to march to attempt to relieve the siege and was unable to safely harass the Christian armies due to the ongoing civil war ; even after he left to attempt to save Malaga , he was forced to leave troops in the Alhambra to defend against Boabdil and his followers . The first main city to be attacked , Vélez - Málaga , capitulated on 27 April 1487 . Local supporters of Boabdil directly aided the Christian besiegers . Málaga held out during an extended siege that lasted from 7 May 1487 until 18 August 1487 with a bitter resistance ; its commander preferred death to surrender , and the African garrison and Christian " renegades " ( converts to Islam ) fought tenaciously fearing the consequences of defeat . Near the end , the notables of Malaga finally offered a surrender , but Ferdindad wasn ' t interested , as generous terms had already been offered twice . When the city finally fell , Fernandez punished almost all the inhabitants for their stubborn resistance with slavery . Renegades were burned alive or pierced by reeds . The Jews of Malaga , however , were spared , as Castilian Jews ransomed them from slavery . Historian William Prescott considered the fall of Málaga the most important part of the war ; as the chief port of Granada , Granada could not reasonably continue on as an independent state without it . Siege of Baza . al - Zagal lost prestige from the fall of Málaga , and Boabdil took over all of the city of Granada in 1487 ; he additionally controlled the northeast of the country with Vélez - Rubio , Vélez - Blanco , and Vera . al - Zagal still controlled Baza , Guadix , and Almería . Boabdil took no action as the Christian forces took some of his land , perhaps assuming it would shortly be returned to him . In 1489 , the Christian forces began a painfully long siege of Baza , the most important stronghold remaining of al - Zagal ' s . Baza was highly defensible as it required the Christians to split their armies , and artillery was little use against it . The siege lasted 6 months ; supplying the army caused a huge budget shortfall for the Castilians . Occasional threats of deprivation of office were necessary to keep the army in the field , and Isabella came personally to the siege to keep morale of both the nobles and the soldiers high . After 6 months , al - Zagal surrendered , despite his garrison still being largely unharmed ; he had become convinced that the Christians were serious about maintaining the siege as long as it would take , and further resistance was useless without the long - term hope of relief , which there wasn ' t . Baza was granted generous surrender terms , unlike Málaga . Last stand at Granada . With the fall of Baza and the capture of al - Zagal , in 1490 it seemed as if the war was over . Ferdinand and Isabella thought this was the case . However , Boabdil was unhappy with the rewards for his alliance with Ferdinand and Isabella , possibly because lands that had been promised to him were being administered by Castile . He broke off his vassalage and rebelled against the Catholic Monarchs , despite holding only the city of Granada and the Alpujarras Mountains . It was clear that such a position was untenable in the long term , so Boabdil sent out desperate requests for external aid . The Sultan of Egypt , An - Nasir Muhammad , mildly rebuked Ferdinand for the Granada War , but the Mamluks that ruled Egypt were in a near constant war with the Ottoman Turks . As Castile and Aragon were fellow enemies of the Turks , the Sultan had no desire to break their alliance against the Turks . Boabdil also requested aid from the Kingdom of Fez ( modern Morocco ) , but no reply is recorded by history . North Africa continued to sell Castile wheat throughout the war and valued maintaining good trade relations . Furthermore , the Granadans no longer controlled any coastline with which to receive overseas aid in any case . No help would be forthcoming for Granada . An eight - month siege of the Emirate of Granada began in April 1491 . The situation for the defenders grew progressively more dire , as their forces for interfering with the siege dwindled and advisers schemed against each other . Bribery of important officials was rampant , and at least one of the chief advisers to Emir Boabdil seems to have been working for Castile the entire time . After the Battle of Granada provisional surrender , the Treaty of Granada ( 1491 ) , was signed on November 25 , 1491 , which granted two months to the city . The reason for the long delay was not so much intransigence on either side , but rather the inability of the Granadan government to coordinate amongst itself in the midst of the disorder and tumult that gripped the city . After the terms were negotiated , which proved rather generous to the Muslims , the city capitulated on January 2 , 1492 . The besieging Christians sneaked troops into the Alhambra that day in case resistance materialized , which it did not . Granada ' s resistance had come to its end . Tactics and technology . The most notable facet of the Granada War was the power of bombards and cannon s to greatly shorten the many siege s of the war . The Castilians and Aragonese started the war with only a few artillery pieces , but Ferdinand had access to French and Burgundian experts from his recent wars , and the Christians aggressively increased their forces . The Muslims , however , lagged far behind in their use of artillery , generally only using the occasional captured Christian piece . The historian Weston F . Cook Jr . wrote " Gunpowder firepower and artillery siege operations won the Granadan war , and other factors in the Spanish victory were actually secondary and derivative . " By 1495 , Castile and Aragaon controlled 179 pieces of artillery total , a vast increase from the paltry numbers seen in the War of the Castilian Succession . Primitive arquebus es also saw use in the war , though only to a small degree . Heavy cavalry knights were a much smaller factor in the Granada War than seen in earlier warfare . Light cavalry jinete s took on a more prominent role instead . The open - field battles in which cavalry were the most important were rare ; the Granadans , badly outnumbered , generally avoided such battles . The Castilians also employed a large number of supporting men ; a huge force of workers were mustered in 1483 to destroy crops and pillage the countryside rather than engage directly in battle . Coordination and logistics was difficult given the mountainous terrain , but the Christians diligently built a series of roads through the mountains to supply their troops with food and supplies . Politically , many nobles insisted on controlling their own forces , but Ferdinand and Isabella were still able to exercise a large degree of control in directing the army as a whole . The Granadans , meanwhile , were beset with the civil war , preventing the establishment of a unified command . The army was almost completely Castilian ; Aragonese and foreign mercenary participation existed , but was minimal . Of the Castilian army , Andalusia contributed far more troops than the other territories , with much of its population conscripted into the war . The nobility provided the majority of the expensive cavalry . The Granada War would prove to be valuable training for Castile ' s participation in the Italian Wars , where the Castilian armies and tactics such as the " tercio " would acquit themselves well . Consequences . The surrender of Granada was seen as a great blow to Islam and a triumph of Christianity . Other Christian states offered their sincere congratulations to Ferdinand and Isabella , while Islamic writers reacted with despair . In Castile and Aragon , celebrations and bullfights were held . People rejoiced in the streets . The Treaty of Granada ( 1491 ) terms for Granada ' s surrender were quite generous to the Muslims , considering how little they had left to bargain with . They were similar to the terms offered to towns which surrendered earlier , when the outcome of the war was in doubt . For three years , Muslims could emigrate and return freely . They were allowed to keep weapons , though not firearms . ( This provision was to be annulled a month later , though . ) No one would be forced to change religion , not even former Christians who ' d converted to Islam . Boabdil was offered money and the rulership of a small principality in the mountainous Alpujarras , an area that would have been difficult to control in any case . At first , most of conquered Granada was treated respectfully and so predominantly stable for seven years , though the Alhambra Decree of 1492 expelled the Jews that were not converso Marrano s . King Boabdil soon found his position intolerable . He left for Morocco in Oct 1493 , where he would die some forty years later . Eventually , Castile started to revoke some of the more tolerant attributes of the treaty . This initiative was led by Archbishop Cisneros , who ordered the burning of valued Arabic manuscripts and other measures detrimental to the Muslims ( and Jews ) . This sparked a revolt — sometimes called the First Rebellion of the Alpujarras — that ended in many Muslims being forced to choose between baptism and exile ( or execution ) . Tensions from then onward would remain high , and Castile was obliged to maintain a large military force in Granada to deter future revolts . Isabella also strengthened the Spanish Inquisition , and Ferdinand brought the Inquisition to Aragon where previously it had not held power . Castile was the main beneficiary of the war and completely annexed Granada . After all , Castile had also spent by far the majority of the money and manpower to prosecute the war . The conquest of Granada meant little for Aragon ' s strategic position , but it did help secure Castilian support in Italy and France , where Aragon ' s interests lay . Granada had presented a potential ally to France to act as a thorn in Castile and Aragon ' s side , much as Scotland did to England . Granada ' s conquest removed this weakness , enabling a more aggressive foreign policy . Increasing oppression of the Moors - now known as Moriscos or " New Christians " - led to a second revolt throughout the province - particular in the Alpujarra - in 1568 . This time almost all the Moriscos of Granada were expelled to other regions . Cultural influence . An entire genre , " romances fronterizos " , developed around stories of the war and the battles on the Granadan frontier which reached their culmination in Granada ' s fall . Ginés Pérez de Hita wrote an early example of historical fiction , " Guerras civiles de Granada " , a romantic account of the war that emphasized chivalry and heroism on both sides . A number of stories and songs appear to have been sponsored by the royal government to help steel morale for the long struggle ; " Sobre Baza " was a poem written in 1479 encouraging persistence in the long siege . The song " " Setenil , ay Setenel " " , written in 1484 , hoped that Ferdinand would conquer " as far as Jerusalem . " The song " " Una sañosa porfía " " by Juan del Encina puts the depiction of the war in the lips of King Boabdil himself .