The Last Moor Falls: Granada Surrenders After 800 Years
Boabdil wept as he handed over the keys to Granada. His mother supposedly told him: "You weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man." The pass where he looked back at the city for the last time is still called El Último Suspiro del Moro — the Moor's Last Sigh. Ferdinand and Isabella had spent ten years grinding down the last Muslim kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula. Swiss mercenaries, Castilian nobles, and church money all poured into the campaign. A civil war inside Granada's ruling family did half the work for them. The Treaty of Granada, signed November 25, 1491, promised religious tolerance for Muslims. That promise lasted about a decade. By 1502, Muslims faced a choice: convert or leave. The Reconquista was complete after 781 years. And within months of taking Granada, Isabella funded a sailor named Columbus. One conquest ended. Another began.
January 2, 1492
534 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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