This Lesson's logo is a Spanish caravelle

To understand this process, we must realize that the Peninsula (and especially the part of it that became Spain) had long been the target of invaders, and went through an extended and difficult struggle to gain its independence from the Muslim world. This latter struggle, known as "La Reconquista" (the Reconquest) was to shape many of the attitudes the explorers and conquistadores brought from Iberia to the Americas.

The stage for the Reconquest was set by the Visigoths from northern Europe who moved into the Peninsula as Roman power declined in the 5th century. The Visigoths were a quarrelsome lot, and warfare was frequent among the various local rulers. In the year 711 one of them invited the Moors to enter the Peninsula in order to help him defeat a rival. The Arabs, led by Tarik (who gave his name to Gibraltar) were more than happy to oblige, but they betrayed their host, invaded in force and almost conquered the whole Peninsula by the year 718. Although the Arab rule was relatively tolerant, the Christian knights in small mountain strongholds in northern Spain launched a struggle to regain their lost lands and peoples. The Reconquest gradually acquired the character of a religious crusade, pitting Christian against Arab, especially after the discovery of what was believed to be the tomb of the apostle St James (Santiago in Spanish) in northern Spain. The apostle's name became the battle cry of the Christian knights, and Santiago was cast as the warrior saint, patron of the Reconquista, and later of the Conquest of America.