It is a period of time between Ancient Age and Modern Age. It started when The Roman Empire fell in 476 AD and it finished with the Discovering of the American Continent in 1492.

At that time Europe was divided, territories usually ruled by a King at the top of the social pyramid, with the consent of the clerical system (the church), it was a feudal system.

The nobles were right below them. They ruled over the land that the King left them, they defended the King in exchange of services.

Nobles were authorities for peasants, who worked the land, paying taxes to them too.

They could live in this land and be protected by their Lord (a noble).

Between the nobles and the peasants and serfs, there were merchants, farmers and craftsmen.

From the III Century The Roman Empire was weaker and weaker, the borders were difficult to keep and some German tribes from the north and east of Europe arrived to the Iberian Peninsula: the Visigoths, they set up a new kingdom and the capital city was Toledo (Toletum).

Some of the Visigoths kings who tried to unify the territory were: Leovigildo, Recaredo and Recesvinto.

They were not as many as the Romans in number, so they accepted their language (Latin), their Roman laws and their religión (Catholic religion).

A Muslim chief called Tarif came to Spain and went back to his land in Africa with a lot of treasures, in the 711 AD he came back to the Iberian Península with a great army, he defeated and killed the King Rodrigo.

They invaded most parts of the Visigothic Kingdom in a few years and called their new territory AL-ANDALUS, establishing their capital in Córdoba.

At the beginning, they were considered a province depending on the Caliph from Damasco. But in the year 929 AD Abderraman III was proclaimed Caliph and was not dependent from Damasco any longer. This situation lasted until the year 1031 AD.

Cordoba became an important city in economy and culture, it had doctors, poets, astronomers and philosophers,…in addition it had one of the most remarkable markets where all over the world products were bought and sold. At that time most of the main cities had three cultures living together: Muslims, Catholics and Jews.

In the year 1031 AD The Caliphate of Cordoba was divided into small kingdoms, called “Taifas”, they fought each other, so the Christian kings took advantage of this to recuperate their territories in the south.

They were fighting for almost 8 centuries to recuperate their territories, this process is known as “The Reconquista”.

In 1212AD an important battle took place in “Las Navas de Tolosa”, Christians defeated Muslims, after them, the Kings Fernando III and Alfonso X conquered almost all the territories from Al-Andalus, but Granada was still a Muslim terrritory.

In January of 1492 Granada became Christian again after the Catholic Queen Isabel and her army conquered this territory. In March of 1492 The Queen Isabel expelled the Jews from the iberian Peninsula.

Christians formed 4 basic kingdoms: Navarra, Aragón, Castilla y Portugal.

In October of 1492 AD Christopher Columbus arrived to American territories, this is considered the end of the Middle Ages.

5.1. FROM VISIGOTHS

We inherited some words like:” guerra, guardar, esclavo y rico”.

We also inherited some stone buildings, monuments and jewelry.

In Extremadura we have an important church from the Visigoths: Santa Lucía del Trampal in Alcuescar and in Merida close to the Diana´s Temple some Visigoths rests from some buildings can be found too.

5.2. FROM MUSLIMS

They left a great quantity of words in our language, more than 4000 words in Spanish have an arabian origin: many of them starting by “AL” (alfarero, albaricoque, almuerzo); some names of some places like Guadalupe in Extremadura (meaning River of Wolves) or The River Guadalquivir (meaning “The big river”).

They created great markets and started this tradition. They created the first universal knowledge schools and they built big and important monuments like: “The Alhambra in Granada and the Mezquita (a mosque) and Medina Azahara” in Cordoba.

In Merida and Badajoz we have “the Alcazabas” (Muslims fortresses) made by the muslims too.

1. ¿When did the Middle Ages start and when did the Middle Ages finish?

2. Complete this social piramid:

1. What is considered the Middle Age ?

2. When did it start ? And finish ?

3. How was the medieval society organised ?

4. How as this social system called ?

5. Who were the Visigoths ? Where did they set up the capital city of their Kingdom ?

6. What three cultures lived together during Al- Andalus times ?

7. What were the most important advances introduced by the muslims ?

8. Can you name the main styles of medieval art in Spain ? Write examples of each one.