I started work on a way to better comprehend history, using generational cycles to memorize significant dates. One of the first dates I came up with was 1492 - although not for the reason you're probably thinking. A good one for Columbus Day, still.
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1492 - Crisis - The End of the Reconquista
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In the south of Spain, the beautiful palace known as Al Hambra ("The Red One," short for Calat Al Hambra, "The Red Fortress") is a pinnacle of the spread of Islam. The religion began about 900 years before our historical journey, inspired by the One True God of whom Mohammed spoke. It spread across thousands of miles, east past India, west across the top of Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula, but was destined to go no further in this direction. The peak was in 718, when Islam controlled all of the peninsula (what is now Spain and Portugal), and even areas of what is now France (and was then Francia or the Frankish Empire).
The Reconquista ("Reconquest") was the period during which the Iberian Peninsula moved from Islam to Christian hands. The Crusades were unable to stop the advance north through the Holy Land, but the shorter supply lines in Europe eventually - over hundreds of years - stopped, then helped push back, the Moorish invaders. By 1130, half of the peninsula was in the hands of Christian rulers, and they continued to push Islam out.
In April 1491, King Ferdinand of Aragon (with the support of his wife Queen Isabella of Castile) attacked Islam's final outpost in Grenada. His battles with the remains of Islam in the peninsula had started 10 years earlier. In December 1481, Muslims had attacked and subjugated the Castilian outpost of Zahara. The two sides were technically under a truce, although a Castilian raid may have instigated the attack. The resulting outrage gave sufficient support for a series of campaigns (the Granada War) that eventually left no part of Europe under Muslim control.
On January 2, 1492, Al Hambra was the location for the final surrender of Grenada to Ferdinand and Isabella. Among those attending was a merchant from Italy who was planning an exploratory sea voyage to the west. It is probably no coincidence that Ferdinand and Isabella were willing to give the merchant the financing he sought. With a goodly treasury and a sense of triumph, they may have considered the route to the Indies a relatively easy goal. In any case, Christopher Columbus would set off on his voyage five months later.
