January 2: Taking the City of Granada. Fiestas del Corpus 
Spain met seven centuries of Muslim rule. During this time, the northern Christian kingdoms had been hostile to the Arabs, and in the last two years had started a strong process of conquest that had caused the fall of Cordoba and Seville in the thirteenth century. The conquest of Granada went on to become the final campaign of the Muslim kingdom. The Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, were about to be conquered for the Christian hosts the last Arab stronghold in the peninsula.
Granada
warfare between the Christians and Muslims was inevitable since 1479. Fernando Aragon was married to Isabel de Castilla a decade ago when both were teenagers. In 1474 Elizabeth's brother died, Henry IV, and the Civil War divided the peninsula for five years. Isabel won in 1479, just the year in which Ferdinand became king of Aragon, Sicily and Naples.
The Catholic Monarchs had strong religious convictions, so the idea of \u200b\u200blaunching a crusade against the Muslim invader was something that had very in mind. Isabella and Ferdinand just needed an excuse to declare war on the Moor. And the truth he did not take too long to find it.
Religion was a of the main reasons. Castile and Aragon in wealth and population surpassed the kingdom of Granada, although many military volunteers arrived in Granada from Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar. But this flow is cut off just at the time when the Portuguese took over the African side of the Strait in 1413, which the Moroccan decreased.
The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella had rejoined the English kingdoms forgotten his crusade against Muslims. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 also played an important role as Christians sought to compensate this loss to the Turks. From Rome, the pope gave the plan its full support to English.
Since the fall of Cordoba, Granada had been forced to pay tribute to Castile. The emirs of Granada refused to pay for a few years, and this became one of the main reasons for war. However, the spark of light definitely ended December 26, 1481, when troops from Granada, in retaliation for raids on the English border, took the fortress of Zahara in a daring night raid, carried slavery to the inhabitants of people.
The Spaniards beat two months later, attacking the castle of Alhama, and in Granada. The war had begun. Granada took the initiative in war. Fernando, where attempt to take the Muslim fortress of Loja in July 1482, finally defeated, also suffering the death of Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava. In turn, the troops of the emir Abu el Hassan, crushed the Grand Master of Santiago in the mountains of Malaga.
Jealous of his father's victory in Malaga, Prince Boabdil, Mohammed future XII, directed against a English force based in Lucena. Boabdil was ambushed and captured. Make peace with the English, was able to return home quickly, and once there, start a civil war against his father.
After a series of border incursions, Fernando returned to the offensive in 1485. His forces began to besiege a castle after another. Meanwhile, Abu el Hassan died, taking his reign his brother Al Zagal, who continued the civil war against Boabdil. Boabdil finally swore loyalty to his uncle, and he gave the command of Loja, who quickly gave Fernando.
In 1487, Fernando achieved another fundamental fact: the capture of Malaga. From there, the English king launched a campaign in the eastern end of Grenada, invaded much of the emirate. Lands and castles of Al Zagal were falling in Christian hands.
the end of 1489 Al Zagal finally gave up the fight and retired to a small mountain village. Boabdil, in a fit, took the control of the kingdom and urged people to resist. Fernando was forced to start the siege of Granada by sea. After 18 months of intense fighting, in January 1492, he entered the city victorious. Boabdil and people had to leave Granada with tears in his eyes.
