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Al-Àndalus
In 711, an Arab army sent by the governor of North Africa crossed the Strait
of Gibraltar and defeated the Visigoths of Roderic in the lagoon of La Janda or river
Guadalete. The conquest of Hispania was rapid, due to the situation of economic crisis
and the existence of a divided and feeble ruling class. Between June 713 and September
714, the military pressure made itself felt on high Aragon, Lleida and Tarragona
and continued util 725, in which the conquest of the Tarraconense and Septimania
terminated.
Pacts and capitulations were the order of the day throughout this conquest which,
initially, must have involved military control, after the building of camps and the
establishment of garrisons in the most important cities.
With the conquest of Hispania, a new country was formed, al-Àndalus,
with its capital in Cordoba and dependent on the Caliphate of Damascus, which became
for a time the prime political, cultural and economic power in the West. The four
long centuries in which the north-east of the Iberian peninsula belonged to al-Àndalus
left a strong imprint that was to determine the configuration of the future Catalonia.
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