necarion:

The idea that the Spanish Reconquista was “driving away the Muslim Invaders” is kind of funny when you consider the timescales involved.

Most of Iberia fell to the Umayyads between 710 and 780 AD. Iberia had been Christianized in the early 4th century, so that is about 400-450 years as Christian territories (a lot of that with the Visigoths’ Aryan Christianity). The majority of the Reconquista happened between about 1100 and 1300, so that is about 400-600 years as Muslim territories.

Granada was finally captured in 1492, approximately 780 years after it had first been captured by the Umayyads. Not only is that almost twice as long as it had been nominally Christian, it is approximately 80 years longer than Granada had been Roman (c 220 BC to c480 AD)!