an activity from Grow in Wonder
Long ago, the land we now call Spain and Portugal slowly changed hands. Drag the slider through almost 800 years and watch the map change, one piece at a time.
Grandpa Theo says
Our story starts in the year 711. This land was a Christian kingdom until Muslim armies sailed across from North Africa and, within a few years, ruled almost all of it. Only the mountains in the far north were left. From there, the Christians slowly began to win back their land, all the way down to Granada in the south.
Up in those mountains, around the year 722, a small band led by a man named Pelayo stood their ground at a place called Covadonga. By 900, a handful of Christian kingdoms had grown up across the north, slowly, one valley at a time.
In 1085, a Christian king named Alfonso took the great city of Toledo, right in the middle of the land. Getting that far had taken more than 350 years.
In 1212, several Christian kingdoms joined together and won a huge battle at a place called Las Navas de Tolosa. Over the next forty years or so, most of the south changed hands too, including the city of Córdoba.
In 1492, Granada, the last Muslim kingdom, was handed over to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. From the first year on this map to the last, 781 years had gone by.
A map this small can only show so much. Historians who study the period add some important context.
These centuries weren't a single continuous battle. Christian kingdoms often fought each other too and sometimes allied with Muslim rulers against other Christians. The line on this map moved back and forth more than it shows.
For long stretches, Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived, worked, and traded in the same cities. Historians describe cities like Toledo and Córdoba as places where ideas crossed as often as armies did.
This whole stretch of history is often called the Reconquista, Spanish for "reconquest." The people living through it didn't use that word. Historians note the name came centuries afterward, as a tidy label for a long and messy story.
A castle guard's real job wasn't fighting; it was holding the line. Move Ava's shield to block the practice stones before they get past her.
Move Ava with the up and down arrow keys, or the buttons, so her shield lines up with each stone.
Grandpa Theo says
"A good shield arm kept a whole watch alive. Holding your ground was its own kind of brave."
Ava's adventures begin in the books
See the book series