ABSTRACT
The cultural heritage of Rome withstood the barbarian onslaught in Spain, but the sociopolitical unity crumbled, leaving the Spaniards exposed to conquest. The influence of the Visigoths was less lasting than that of the Romans, yet they left major legacies, which lay dormant for almost eight centuries after the Moorish conquest. The Reconquest of Spain from the Moors began in that year, moving out of the isolated redoubts of Christianity left untouched by the Muslims in the cold and inhospitable north. However, the Reconquest did not begin in earnest until the eleventh century. Islam in Muslim Spain contrasted dramatically with Catholicism in Christian Spain, with its appetite for zealots and martyrs obsessed with the Reconquest. The Reconquest of Muslim Spain began in earnest in 1085, when Alfonso VI of Castile took Toledo from the Moors, leading an army made up of Castilians, Leonese, Galicians, Asturians, Basques, Navarrese, and Aragonese.
