The Battle of Río Salado. The End of the Strait's Problem

Abstract

From the 11th century, produced three events of enormous significance in the Western Mediterranean. The first, Christian supremacy in the Iberian Peninsula, which became the reconquest had become an irreversible process. The second, the gradual hegemony of the Christian navies of Genoa, Pisa, Marseille and Barcelona, in the commercial traffic of the Western Mediterranean. Third, the intervention of the Islamic empires of North Africa in the Iberian Peninsula with the aim of helping their brothers in religion. This last fact, known as the “Problem of the Strait arose”, had three protagonists: the Almoravids in the 11th century, the Almohads in the century following, and finally, in the 13th century, were present the marinids in support of the last Muslim peninsular, the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. The combination of these three developments would lead to the so-called "battle of the Strait", which reached its climax in the first half of the 14th century, when the sultan marinid, Abu-l-Hassan, who aspired to proclaim himself Caliph, and whose political agenda the Iberian Peninsula played a fundamental role, prepared a great expedition whose goal was the complete conquest of this territory. To meet this invasion, there was an Alliance of the Christian States, especially Castile and Portugal, that with the support of the fleet of Aragon and Genoa, defeated the Muslims at the battle of Salado, the most important of the reconquest. This victory had two important consequences: the definitive end of the “Problem of the Strait arose”, forever establishing Christian hegemony in the Iberian Peninsula; the domain of the Western Mediterranean by Christian fleets, which would allow the exploration of the mid Atlantic and looting and conquest of the Islamic Maghreb parking operations.