Few people know, however, what an important part the beautiful
city of Granada played in that famous event. It was in October, 1492,
that Columbus first set foot on the New World and claimed it for Spain.
In January of that same year another territory had been added to that
same crown; for the brave soldier-sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella,
had conquered the Moorish kingdom of Granada in the south and made it
part of their own country.
Nearly eight hundred years before, the dark-skinned Moors had come over
from Africa and invaded the European peninsula which lies closest to the
Straits of Gibraltar, and the people of that peninsula had been battling
fiercely ever since to drive them back to where they came from. True,
the Moor had brought Arabian art and learning with him, but he had
brought also the Mohammedan religion, and _that_ was intolerable
not only to the Spaniards but to all Europeans. No Christian country
could brook the thought of this Asiatic creed flourishing on her soil,
so Spain soon set to work to get rid of it.
This war between the two religions began in the north near the Bay of
Biscay whither the Christians were finally pushed by the invaders. Each
century saw the Moors driven a little farther south toward the
Mediterranean, until Granada, where the lovely Sierra Nevadas rise, was
the last stronghold left them.
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