The Muslim conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom (corrected)

-CLASSIFICATION

This map is an evolution map which reflects the situation of the Peninsula when the Muslims invaded it. Is a Socio-political map, because it shows the expansion of the Muslims and the territories that belonged to the Christians.

The title of this map is “Military campaigns”. It’s a map of the Iberian Peninsula during the chronological period between 711 to 732. The map key shows different military campaigns. It’s a contemporary map made to explain things referred to the past.

-DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

Description: On the map we can observe the different territories which were conquered by the Muslims and the territories kept by the Christians between 711-732. The map also shows the different military campaigns with arrows in different colours. There is also a symbol which shows the main battles.

In yellow are the territories occupied by (under the power of) the Muslims and in purple the ones that remained in the hands of the Christians in the first moments of the conquest. In the north in white we find the territories that were not occupied by the Muslims and remained in the Christians’ hands. 

Analysis: the map explains the end of the Visigothic Kingdom and Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula 

The invasion was possible because when Agila was displaced from the throne, his relatives looked to the North of Africa and sent emissaries there to get their help to expel king Roderic from the throne. The different arrows show the different military campaigns developed by several Muslim armies: In blue, the first army arrived in 711, commanded by Tariq ibn Ziyad, which disembarked in Gibraltar and defeated the Visigothic troops in the Battle of Guadalete, where King Roderic died. After this, the Muslims didn´t give the throne to Agila, and they decided to stay in the Peninsula. In 712 another army commanded by Musa ibn Nusayr represented with a red arrow, arrived in the Peninsula, joined Tariq´s troops in Toledo and they conquered almost all the territory. In 721 the Muslims reached Septimania, in the South of Gaul. The Visigoths didn´t put much resistance. Some people signed surrender agreements, like Theodemir of Orihuela, whose territory appears in purple, who signed the Treaty of Orihuela and converted to Islam (Tudmir was his Muslim name). He and other Visigoths in different parts of the Peninsula did this because they wanted to keep their properties. In the North of the Peninsula, the map shows the territories under the Christian power. In this period there were also two important battles, which are reflected on the map: 

- In 722 the Battle of Covadonga, in fact a skirmish, where the Muslims were supposedly defeated by an Asturian man called Pelagius

- In 732 they were stopped in France by Charles Martel, in the Battle of Poitiers

After these two battles the Muslims settled down mainly in the center and South of the Peninsula and established an emirate, depending from the Caliphate in Damascus. 

The Muslims stayed in the Peninsula for 8 centuries, until  the Christians "reconquered" the Peninsula, after deposing the last Nasrid king of Granada in 1492. 

-CONCLUSION

The map reflects the Muslim conquest of the Peninsula during 711-732 in the Iberian Peninsula.

As for the historical significance of this map, we can relate it to know the beginning of the conquest and the origin of Al-Andalus. The Christian territories in the North were the origin of the Christian kingdoms which begun the “Reconquest”.