ABSTRACT
The absence of a detailed study focused on the "Cannon Conquest" of Muslim Spain is thus rather ironic because the muscularity of Castile's artillery almost refuses to let anyone escape expressing an opinion on the cannon factor in Christian Spain's victory. The massive employment of cannons to conquer Granada represented just as sharp and no less revolutionary a break with the timid deployments of artillery in previous fifteenth-century battles. To secure supply lines between Alhama and Castilian Andalucia, the King tried to take the city of Loja, but failed with heavy losses, including some cannons. The Marques, however, proved quite self-sufficient, having brought some light cannons from his private stores. Artillery was the decisive variable, yielding victory after victory against a resistance that usually gave little hint of internal decay, at least until the cannons opened up. Unrelenting and overwhelming armed force, not the internal feuding of Nasrid elites, undid Granada.
