Conversos

Spanish or Portuguese for convert.

Both Christians and Jews called them tornadizo (renegade), and laws were passed during the reigns of Jaime I, Alfonso X and Juan I forbidding the use of this epithet

Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand

Their marriage and subsequent ascension to the throne served to unite Spain.

Major turning Point in history of Iberia.

The forces of King Alfonso VIII of Castile were joined by the armies of his Christian rivals, Sancho VII of Navarre, Pedro II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal in battle against the Berber Muslim Almohad rulers of the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula.

gave momentum to Christian reconquest.

Rodrigo (or Ruy) Díaz de Vivar  a Castilian nobleman, military leader and gifted diplomat, who after being exiled, conquered and governed the city of Valencia. Rodrigo Díaz was educated in the royal court of Castile and became chief general, of Alfonso VI, and his most valuable asset in the fight against the Moors.

He is primarily known today for his maps and charts collected in his Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation), a book which contains detailed information on navigation as well as extremely accurate charts describing the important ports and cities of the Mediterranean Sea. He gained fame as a cartographer when a small part of his first world map (prepared in 1513) was discovered in 1929 at Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. The most surprising aspect was the presence of the Americas on an Ottoman map, making it the first Turkish map ever drawn of the Americas.

 was the author of several scientific treatises, three of which would be of continuing importance to later Islamic and European science. his day.

The no-mans-land between Christian Spain and Moorish-occupied Spain was too insecure for arable farming and was only exploited by shepherds. The Mesta can be regarded as the first, and most powerful, agricultural union in mediaeval Europe.

term coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1947 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures.

different phases in the process of transition from one culture to another.  Not just the accrual of another culture or the loss of one. 

A document, recording or other source of information (paper, picture,etc.) that was created at the time being studied, by an authoritative source, usually one with direct personal knowledge of the events being described. It is an original source of infor about the topic.

built by Maya in the center of the yucatan peninsula, present day mexico. 

major regional focal point in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classic through the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the Early Postclassic period.

Tenochtitlan, texcoco, tlacopan

Formed by Itzcoatl of Tenochtitlan, Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco, and the smaller city-state of Tlacopan in 1428

ruled the area in and around the Valley of Mexico from 1428 until they were defeated by the Spanish conquistadores and their native allies under Hernán Cortés in 1521.

At its height, the Alliance controlled most of central Mexico from coast to coast, except for Tlaxcalteca. It was the Tlaxcalans who allied with Cortés in 1521 to ultimately destroy the Alliance.

 May have been something of a monotheist.  The roof of this shrine was gem-encrusted and no human sacrifices were permitted, only the offering of flowers and incense. Some researchers, however, believe that Ixtlilxochitl and Pomar were attempting to cast Nezahualcoyotl in a light more favorable to the Spanish colonial authorities.