Christians crush Almohads at Las Navas de Tolosa

July 16, 1212

A combined army under Alfonso VIII of Castile broke the Almohad caliphate's grip on Iberia in a mountain pass of the Sierra Morena. The victory opened Andalusia to the Reconquista and ended any serious Muslim attempt to reunify Spain under North African rule. Within a generation the great cities of Cordoba, Seville, and Valencia would fall to Christian armies pushing south.