ABSTRACT
Just like other Iberian kingdoms Portugal was forged in the fight against Islam. However the completion of the Reconquista in 1249 did not mean the end of the wars: whether in civil conflicts (as the ones of 1245–1248 and 1319–1324) or with the neighbouring kingdom of Castile (as it happened during the reign of Fernando and in the context of the dynastic crisis of 1383–1385). Later, the conquest of the North African city of Ceuta, in 1415, marked the beginning of the Portuguese overseas expansion taking the war to other continents but then facing new challenges on land and at sea.
