In just a a few centuries, *shoutout Logang*
Islam spread from the Arabian peninsula with tremendous force across Asia and North Africa.
Just a little more than a century after Muhammed's death, Islam's followers created
one of the largest empires the world yet seen: the Umayyad Caliphate.
Its borders stretched from Afghanistan, all the way to the Iberian Peninsula.
Even though it seems impossible to imagine now, for almost 700 years, *deus vult*
Muslims held some territory within the Iberian Peninsula.
They interacted, made alliances, and waged war against the Christian kingdoms.
This time period has become known as "the Reconquista" (or reconquer).
This time of conflict, alliances, and holy war shaped the mind of the Portuguese and Spanish.
The dynasties formed went on to shape the rest of Europe, and eventually, the globe.
So this spurs the question:
What if the Reconquista failed?
What if the Europeans could not drive out the Arabs and Berbers from Iberia?
Before I talk about this scenario, we need some historical context.
With the birth of Islam in the 7th Century,
the Caliphate (a theocratic state led by a Caliph)
spread across the Middle East and North Africa, conquering
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, and eventually the Iberian peninsula,
within a very short amount of time.
In these conquests, their religion, Islam, came along with them,
becoming the dominant faith in the territory they seized.
Just a few centuries before, the Roman province of Hispania was invaded by Germanic tribes like the Vandals.
As the empire collapsed, multiple Germanic tribes divided the land amongst themselves.
However, the Vandal influence was shortlived, as another tribe (the Visigoths) invaded and defeated numerous tribes,
assimilating them under their new rule.
The Visigoths converted to Catholicism, and with that, tied themselves religiously and culturally with the Latin Church.
However, their influence only lasted 2 centuries as the Islamic armies soon invaded from Africa in the 8th century.
As the Christian Visigoth kingdom collapsed, any refugee nobles fled to the mountainous north.
Umayyad forces were defeated by Pelagius' (of Asturias) men in 718, and Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732.
This destroyed any Islamic expansion into Western Europe.
Yet, the Moors (Iberian Muslims) would control most of the peninsula.
The new Muslim rulers respected the native Christians and Jews right to practice their own religion,
however, non-Muslims had to pay a tax.
New groups of Berbers, Arabs and other groups immigrated into Iberia,
yet the society still favored Arabs above all else.
Non-Arabs and non-Muslims were second class citizens.
The Berbers (a North African people just recently Islamicized) had enough of this racist treatment.
This discrimination created significant ethnic tension and violence between the two groups.
It boiled over into a full grown revolt against the Arabs just decades after taking Iberia.
In the political turmoil, the remnant Christian nobles located in the Kingdom of Asturias seized the opportunity and captured land from the distracted Arabs.
Christian rulers had been pushed back to the northern coast. For the first few centuries, the wars against the Moors wouldn't be united.
If anything, it was simply reflective of the complicated politics of Middle Aged Europe.
Christians/Muslims fought each other and their own.
This was how it was for the first three centuries, after the Muslim invasions.
For Muslim Iberia, rule changed hands between Muslims just as with any European kingdom.
First from the Umayyads, then from an independent Caliphate, then to the zealous Berber Almohads,
to numerous small Muslim kingdoms.
Competition with other Muslim power players (Like the Egyptians, Saudis and Syrians) certainly affected the Moors.
Iberia, for 700 years, was a player in Islamic world politics.
The Christian kingdoms on the border of the Muslim Caliphate immediately put up resistance in the first years of occupation.
But WHO were these kingdoms?
Asturias were the first ones to fight off the Moors, and set off the Reconquista.
Asturias would move its capital to Leon, and become the Kingdom of Leon.
From Leon would split the County of Portugal and Castile.
Conflict was at first, not in the name of God, but for the kingdom (though religion did play a part at times).
For much of the Reconquista, battles were simply skirmishes and raids by either Muslims or Christians.
Fighting was not meant to conquer new territory, but simply for supplies or tribute, almost comparable to tribes in a state of high alert.
Military developed among Europeans to be ready for any incursion attacks by the Moors.
With the rise of the Abassids in the East, the Umayyads were left with just Iberia.
The Caliphate of Cordoba lasted a few decades before collapsing and being split among smaller leaders.
By this time, the reason for transformed at the turn of the millennium, the Reconquista was involved
with the larger effort that was occurring throughout Europe: the Crusades.
Any Muslim attacks on Christian kingdoms, was an attack on all of Christendom.
Retaking the land from the Moors became a God given quest from the Church to liberate the Christians from Muslim occupation,
instead of simply a matter of individual gain.
This didn't stop infighting amongst the Christians, but it did transform the political climate of Europe to not tolerate Islamic influence in Iberia.
Indulgences were given to knights who fought in Spain.
Disconnected kingdoms only previously allied by their faith,
Now were partners in a crusade against the Muslims.
When the Caliphate of Cordoba collapsed, it allowed even more devout Muslims to invade Spain and take their place.
These were the Almoravids.
The Almoravids were far less tolerant of Christians and Jews, their successors, the Almohad Caliphate, were even less tolerant before collapsing in on themselves.
As the Muslims had lost land, the kingdoms in Iberia had transformed.
Muslim influence in the peninsula was a shadow of its former self.
Only the City of Granada had remained.
In the 15th century, Castile and Aragon, now the most prominent kingdoms, united under a single dynasty,
In a marriage between Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon,
Uniting the regions which would become Spain just a generation later.
In their final push, Isabella and Ferdinand captured Granada.
The city fell, and any form of Muslim rule in Iberia was destroyed in 1492.
The Spanish were much less tolerant of their new Muslim and Jewish subjects,
non-Christians were ordered to either convert to Christianity, emigrate, or face death.
There was no exception.
For the next few centuries, Muslim rebellions, Spanish inquisitions and ethnic conflicts would occur.
Eventually all Muslims were driven out of Iberia,
and the land is dominantly Catholic today.
So now, onto the alternate timeline.
What if the Reconquista had failed, and the Christian kingdoms were unable to push the Muslims out of Iberia?
Here is one alternate scenario.
In this alternate timeline, let's simply say that no matter what, the Europeans are unable to push the Moors.
(This is pretty unrealistic, as Muslim influence was shrinking just a century after conquest,
but just for the sake of this scenario, let's say that somehow,
the Christians just do not push them out.
Just to see how drastic the Reconquista changed history.)
In this alternate timeline, Iberia would change hands between Muslim forces,
(It isn't important who controls it, as that opens up a whole new video about inter-Islamic politics, so let's keep this general.)
By removing the events of the Reconquista,
you remove 700 years of Spanish and Portuguese history.
It wasn't simply an event done on the side.
It determined the fate of these states.
Much like how the Ottoman occupation influenced the Balkans.
The constant state of fighting, either with Moors, or with each other,
made these kingdoms far more zealous than other Europeans.
The close proximity of the war meant that the crusading spirit well into the age of exploration,
the inquisition, and brutal conquest of the Native people.
The Iberian peninsula, or as it is called now, "An-Andalus" in this alternate timeline,
is seen as how Egypt, Syria and Turkey are seen today.
These lands were formerly massive centres of Christianity,
tied to Europe as Iberia was.
But after the Arab invasions and spread of Islam, communications changed between them.
In this alternate timeline, Iberia sees the same fate.
The politics of Iberia are not between European nobles,
But between Caliphs and other rules in the Arabic world.
Power is exchanged between Muslims, but never is the land retaken by Christians.
(Remember, it easily could have in a realistic scenario,
but this is simply an exercise.)
Europe's western border is defined by the border of the Christian states and the Moorish territories,
instead of between Spain and North Africa.
These border kingdoms remain small, but appeal to the rest of Christian Europe for support.
Tension remains high between Christian and Muslim Iberians on the border.
War would be frequent between the two, and the source of political and ethnic hatred for centuries to come.
In Moorish Spain, Islam remains the dominant religion in this alternate timeline.
In our own, it was the main religion before the Reconquista,
Islamic teaching and influence continues to slowly transform the peninsula.
The ethnic makeup of the region is mainly native Iberians.
Not ethnically different from their Christian counterparts,
the only difference is that their ancestors converted to Islam generations before.
Communities of Jews, Berbers and Arabs exist throughout Moorish Iberia,
deeply rooted cultures take place.
Muslims held parts of Iberia for 700 years.
(To put this in perspective,
that is a longer stretch of time
than from the discovery of the Americas to today.
So within that time period, Arabic cultural influence has certainly stuck,
and would have continued on had the Reconquista not taken place.)
In this alternate timeline, the Moors' territory remains the same from the 8th century onwards.
Since no land is reclaimed by Europeans, the Kingdoms of Leon, Castile, Aragon and Portugal are never created.
(An obvious result of this is the Spanish and Portuguese Empires never exist.)
This has dramatic ramifications on the globe and world history.
The Spanish and Portuguese were the first to jumpstart colonization across the globe, immediately after conquering Granada,
the Spanish Crown funded Columbus' first voyage,
and the venture brought European intention to the New World,
at the dismay of the natives.
Following this voyage, the Iberian empires immediately laid claim to the New World.
The Spanish destroyed the Aztec and Inca, converted the natives, then exploited them across their holdings,
to become the richest and most powerful dynasties in Europe.
In this alternate timeline, with the Moors controlling an empire of their own in the Spanish homeland,
the voyage of Columbus never occurs.
And so [the] Americas are not discovered in 1492.
In any sense, another empire would discover the Americas.
(I can't predict which one this would be or when they would do it,
as removing one dynasty from Europe is like a house of cards;
it all falls apart.)
What I can predict in this alternate timeline, is that the demographics of the Americas is completely different than in our own.
Imagine the slate being wiped clean.
This doesn't mean that Native Americans would be independent forever, this just means that other European
or Old World cultures would colonize the regions.
(Say, an English Brazil, or a French Mexico, just as an example.)
The African Slave Trade still exists in this alternate scenario,
As the Indigenous population is still killed off by Old World diseases,
and the discovery of tobacco and cotton creates a demand for a workforce.
The empires and players in this world are simply changed,
most likely there is still a predominant African population in the Caribbean, Brazil and Dixie (South USA), just under different empires,
because these lands were still fertile for cash crops.
the Portuguese and Spanish led to the eventual domination of Europe across the globe,
bringing in goods and resources that brought wealth to the continent.
However, eventually, another empire would have set sail as well.
The Americas weren't the only thing changed,
European monarchies were fundamental to developing the modern states of the continent
(Or at least uniting feudal lands under a sense of identity).
The marriage of specific rulers throughout thousands of years directly led to our timeline.
Royal ascendance to the throne by marriage or birthright has come to create the decision makers of a kingdom.
The king or queen who decides to wage war upon another monarch,
or, say, piss off the pope.
In this alternate timeline, Isabella and Ferdinand are not born and do not unite their kingdoms.
Without this marriage, Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor) is never born and does not unify the Iberian kingdoms with the Holy Roman Empire and the Italian states.
There is never a unified Spanish or Portuguese nation, as the remnant kingdoms remain small in the Northern mountains.
The discovery of the Americas transformed Europe,
and gave it the economic military power to soon colonize the globe.
Removing Columbus and Iberian colonial efforts drastically changes the timeline.
The Holy Roman Empire, the Reformation, British and Spanish rivalry, colonial endeavours,
all were deeply affected by the Reconquista.
Of course, this is just one of the numerous possible scenarios that could have occurred.
It's fun to theorize.
This video idea was suggested by Patreon contributor Austin.
Thanks for your contribution, Austin.
You could say I didn't truly...
...expect it.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
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