Reconquista

• in medieval Spain and Portugal, a series of campaigns by

Christian states to recapture territory from the Muslims, who
had occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula in the early 8th
century.
• Though the beginning of the Reconquista is traditionally dated
to about 718, when the Christian Asturians opposed the
Muslims at the Battle of Covadonga, the impulse toward
reconquest was expressed only sporadically through the first
three centuries of Muslim hegemony. After a failed invasion of
Muslim Spain in 778, in 801 Charlemagne captured Barcelona
and eventually established Frankish control over the Spanish
March, the region between the Pyrenees and the Ebro River.
Asturian kings, presenting themselves as the heirs to the
Visigothic monarchy that had ruled Spain prior to the Muslim
conquest, capitalized on dissension within the Muslim ranks
and expanded their holdings in the late 9th century. The
Reconquest might have taken root at that earlier date had it
not been for a resurgence in the power of the Córdoban
caliphate and a break between the Christian kingdoms of
Castile and León in the 10th century. (Britannica)
Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 15th c.
Portuguese in
West Africa
 Portuguese
colonies in East
Africa
 Mansa Musa
• died 1332/37?
• mansa (emperor) of the West African empire of Mali from 1307 (or 1312). Mansa
Mūsā left a realm notable for its extent and riches
• He is best remembered in the Middle East and Europe for the splendor of his
pilgrimage to Mecca (1324).
• It was this pilgrimage that awakened the world to the stupendous wealth of Mali.
Cairo and Mecca received this royal personage, whose glittering procession, in
the superlatives employed by Arab chroniclers, almost put Africa’s sun to shame.
• Traveling from his capital of Niani on the upper Niger River to Walata, Mauritania
and on to Tuat (now in Algeria) before making his way to Cairo, Mansa Mūsā was
accompanied by an impressive caravan consisting of 60,000 men.
• Mansa Mūsā had a baggage train of 80 camels, each carrying 300 pounds of gold.
(Britannica)