By the 11th century, mostly feudal classes had taken shape.

The main classes of feudal society are feudal lords and dependent peasants.

Medieval cities:

By the 11th century - the growth of industrial relations (relations between people in the production process). Because of the domination of natural commodity exchange in the countryside and the narrowness of the village market, a massive exodus from the countryside to the cities begins.

Development of a medieval city - theories of origin:

Romanist theory: from the ruins of the Roman cities - Marseille - the former port of Marsilia.

Mark theory - city center - Mark community

Burg theory - from medieval fortresses (Augsburg, Brandenburg)

Market theory from the markets located at the ferry (Oxford 9 bull ford), near bridges (Cambridge), in the bay of a convenient bay, at the crossroads of dry roads.

Cities were formed around the walls of monasteries, castles of large feudal lords.

(theories of Western historians).

Cities grew unevenly, first of all appeared in Italy (Venice, Genoa, Florence, Naples) somewhat later in the South of France (Marseille, Toulouse) - 10-11 centuries. - the growth of cities here was facilitated by trade ties with Byzantium and the East, as well as the continuity of urban development since antiquity. Most recently, cities appeared in the north - in the Scandinavian countries, Ireland.

The city in the 11th century is a center of craft and trade.

The city could be the center of the seigneur.

In the 9-11 centuries. - the beginning of the struggle of cities with feudal lords for urban liberties: liberation from feudal dependence, from duties, the acquisition of market rights, the right to self-government and their own jurisdiction .. Cities received freedom in different ways. With the help of ransom from the lord (only rich cities - French and English), with the help of uprisings - the northeastern cities of France. Much depended on the position of the royal power. Where there was no centralized government, many cities achieved independence already in the 9-11 centuries. (Genoa, Venice) - became cities - states that had the right to declare war, mint their own coins. Free cities - Germany - Habsburg, Lubeck. English cities did not receive freedom, but with the help of the ransom they achieved many liberties and privileges. Most cities in Western Europe have achieved the abolition of the serfdom of their inhabitants.

City self-government is being formed - which was concentrated in the Town Hall. There was also a warehouse for goods. An urban estate is formed - the bourgeoisie (burgher is a city dweller), the bourgeoisie (France). The urban rich - patricians - a group of representatives of the hereditary landed aristocracy, wealthy merchants and usurers. They formed the city's self-government: the mayor, the city council, the court, senior officials in charge of finances. Patricians took advantage of court and taxation.

By the 11th century, there was an active development of urban crafts, at first the craft was handicraft - about 8 people (one family) worked in the workshop.

With the growth of competition, the process of combining workshops into an organization - workshops - begins.

In the 12-13th centuries. a shop system is being formed - the shop has its own charter, security, sources of raw materials, and regulates production conditions. Institute of Craftsmen and Apprentices. In the early days of their existence, workshops played a progressive role - they helped to improve the quality of products, improve tools, soften competition, etc.

In the 13th century. the beginning of the struggle of the guilds against the patriciate for the right to participate in the political life of the city. In the cities where the craft was developed, the struggle led to the fact that the patriciate made concessions and began to share his power with the guild elite. In cities where trade played a predominant role (the Hanseatic cities of Germany, the merchant republics of Italy), the patrician retained power in his hands.

In the 14-16 centuries. there is a decomposition of the guild structure. 14-15 centuries. the struggle of the urban plebs against the guild elite.

15th century - transfer of workshops to guilds, crushing, disintegration of the workshop system.

Con. 14-15 c. - development of trade - internal - the formation of common markets - London-In England, Paris - France. Foreign trade - the Mediterranean basin, the Baltic and North Seas. International Fairs - Frankfurt am Main, Leipzig, Geneva.

Trade was hampered by piracy at sea, highway robbers, and the absence of a unified monetary system. With the development of trade, there is an accumulation of money capital in the hands of merchants. To protect their interests, they create guilds and intercity unions - Hansa. Hanseatic League. Swabian Union. - Germany. - the largest.

Financial business development:

Credit business is developing - a bank - an office desk - monetary transactions were carried out. Italian bankers give loans to European kings.

The merchants - a strong urban stratum - begin to engage in international trade. (mostly transit).

The development of commodity-money relations - usury - stratification among artisans and merchants.

The emergence of handicraft manufactory 14-16 centuries.

Manus - hand, texture - product - only hired workers, personally free, all means of production - belong to the owner.

Village

By the 11th century the peasants- the most numerous class.

Completely free - there are so few in the highlands of the Alps, southern Italy and southern France. Serves are completely dependent.

The Mermontans are partly dependent, are personally free but tied to the ground.

A clear feudal hierarchy has developed within which vassal-feudal relations dominate - relations based on land ownership. Their essence was as follows - the senior gave his vassal a plot of land with peasants in conditional possession for service - a benefit. The introduction to the position of vassalage, which usually took place in a solemn atmosphere and was accompanied by an oath of allegiance, was called investiture. The beneficiaries are small and medium landowners.

Each large landowner had judicial and administrative influence and exercised it with the help of a coercive apparatus. The feudal patrimony was not only an economic unit, but also an autonomous political organization, a state within a state

Commodity production established in the cities contributed to the development of productive forces in agriculture. The natural economy of the countryside was gradually drawn into commodity-money relations, conditions were created for the development of the domestic market and the specialization of the economy. There was a process of internal colonization - clearing forests and wastelands and turning them into arable land. Feudal estates were drawn into market relations. In particular, English feudal estates in the 13-14 centuries. carried on an extensive trade in wool, bread and cattle. Penetrating into the subsistence economy of estates and villages, commodity-money relations changed the form of feudal rent. For example, in France, corvee duties from the 11th century are replaced by rent and chinsh.

By the 15th century, peasants in England and France were already personally free. The same process was observed in Italy and the Netherlands. In the Eastern regions of Europe in the 14-15th centuries. - in states such as Northern Germany and Poland, the pulling of the estate into commodity-money relations led to an increase in the serf-bondage form of dependence, and an increase in the size of corvée plowing. The reason is that the landowners themselves were engaged in the trade of agricultural products.

The development of commodity-money relations led to the stratification of the peasantry. A prosperous peasantry appeared - they rented land from a landowner and cultivated it with the help of hired labor of their neighbors. The poor peasantry are exploited by landowners and wealthy peasants as farm laborers. - lease relations - sharecropping, sharecropping.

Political structure by the 15th century:

To the end. 15th century - England and France - the presence of royal power, the folding of an absolute monarchy.

Other states - territorial strengthening of the independence of princes - weakening of the power of the sovereign - only in states.

The two types of nobility are the sword nobility (warriors) and the mantle nobility (officials).

Sale of titles. The emergence of the new and the existence of the old nobility in England (Gentry) - run the economy on a new principle.

The emergence of the East India Trading Company, etc.

Estates-representative bodies coexist with royal power. England - Parliament (arises in the 13th century) - bicameral.

France - states general.

Germany - Landtags (then Reichstags).

Spain - Fueros.

The communal movement in the cities - communal revolutions - are especially strong in Italy ((res ?? Kolorienzo, St. Junta)

The rise of industrial civilization was accompanied by rapid population growth. If in 1700 the population of the whole world was 610 million people, in 1800 it was 905 million people, then in 1900 it was 1 billion 630 million people. Urban population growth is accelerating. The first millionaire cities appear. Is growing migration activity, mostly emigration from Europe to North America.

In the XIX century. the social structure of the population is changing. The most important social consequence of the industrial revolution was the strengthening of the bourgeois class and the emergence of the proletarian class. The formation of nations has been completed in most of Western Europe. There have been a number of significant changes in the state structure of European countries. Absolute monarchies almost disappear and are replaced by constitutional monarchies or republics.

Many political transformations of the era of industrial civilization were associated with revolutions and wars. XIX century - the era of social revolutions, which became, as it were, the norm of life in European society. France after the revolution of 1789 experienced in the XIX century. three more revolutions in 1830, 1848 and 1871. In 1848 there was a revolution in Germany, a series of revolutions in Italy and Spain. A peculiar role was played by the wars of Napoleon Bonaparte, which, with all the negative consequences, were accompanied by the abolition of feudal privileges, the secularization of church lands, the establishment of freedom of speech and civil equality.

The development of capitalism in different countries was uneven. There were also significant differences in the tendencies of capitalist development in the countries of old and young capitalism. England was gradually losing its primacy, yielding it to the United States, and Germany also became a dangerous competitor for it. At the end of the XIX century. England experienced the first severe industrial crises, the consequence of which was the outflow of capital to the colony.

Having revolutionized all of Europe, France at the end of the 19th century. ranked 4th in the world. A feature of its financial and economic development was the rapid growth of banking capital. Three quarters of all finances were held in their hands by several banks in France. The financial elite quickly grew rich in loans. The emergence of a special type of bourgeois - a rentier who received income not from his own entrepreneurial activity, but from interest on capital became more and more typical.

Important events took place in USA - a young state that took shape in the second half of the 18th century. during the war of the North American colonies for independence.

Its history begins with 13 English colonies on the Atlantic coast. The first of these, Virginia (Fort Georgetown), was founded in the early 17th century. London merchants. Adventurers, seekers of profit or adventure, people who could not find their place in their homeland, traveled here from Europe. But there were also many hardworking and enterprising people. The early history of the United States is full of violence and even crime. The colonists seized the lands of the Indians, pushing them into the interior of the mainland or ruthlessly destroying them. Slave labor was widely used, especially in the southern colonies.

Over time, the conflict between the British government and the colonies grew. The war of the North American colonies for independence began (1775-1783). In 1783 England recognized the United States as an independent state. In 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia, in which 55 people participated (the founding fathers of the United States). The Constitution was adopted, which enshrined in the countries e republican system. The United States was proclaimed a union (federal) state. The states retained broad self-government and their own separate constitutions. The state structure was based on the principle of separation of powers. The highest legislative body of the country was the Congress, composed of two chambers: the upper (Senate) and lower (House of Representatives). The Senate had equal representation from all states, 2 senators each. In the lower house, the number of state representatives was proportional to the population of the state. The highest executive power belonged to the president of the country, who was elected by an electoral college. The president was given the right to appoint ministers and ambassadors, members of the Supreme Court, and the right to veto. The president was also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Was elected the first president of the United States George Washington. The US Constitution was supplemented in a few years Bill of Rights(the first ten amendments to the Constitution), which proclaimed a number of democratic freedoms: freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion, separation of church from state, personal inviolability and a number of others. Already from the end of the 18th century. A distinctive feature and an important element of US political life is the alternating political leadership of the two parties. In its modern form, the classic American two-party system took shape by the middle of the 19th century. At first, the Democratic Party took shape organizationally, which represented mainly the interests of the South. Then the Republican Party was formed, expressing the interests of the North. The emblem of the Democratic Party was the image of a donkey, the Republican - an elephant.

After the War of Independence, which played the role of the bourgeois revolution, the US economy began to develop at a rapid pace. Already in the middle of the XIX century. The USA came out on the 4th place in the world in terms of the total volume of industrial production. In terms of iron smelting, the United States took third place after England and France. But even at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. differences were outlined in the ways of development of the North and South. In the North, manufactory and then factory industry grew rapidly, creating the prerequisites for an industrial revolution, which began in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. XIX century. It embraced the textile industry, where steam engines were introduced, affected the food industry, metallurgy, mechanical engineering, and transport. Railway construction developed rapidly. In the agriculture of the North, the specialization of the production of agricultural products took shape, and farming developed. Meanwhile, the US South was little affected. industrial revolution. It remained a region of plantation agriculture based on the labor of black slaves. Agriculture became more and more monocultural: cotton gradually replaced tobacco and other crops of the former specialization of the South.

In the 60s. XIX century. the contradictions between North and South are exacerbated and ultimately lead to Civil war(1861 - 1865). About 22 million people lived in the North at that time, and 9 million in the South. The Republican Abraham Lincoln, who was elected President of the United States in 1860, became the leader of the northerners in this war. The war lasted 5 years and ended with the victory of the North. During the war, two important laws were passed: on the release of blacks and on homesteads. According to the law on homestead, every US citizen who reached the age of 21, as well as an immigrant intending to take American citizenship, had the right, after paying $ 10, to receive a 65 hectare parcel of land (homestead), which after 5 years became his property. This determined the victory of the farming (American) way of developing agriculture in the United States.

After the Civil War, the United States entered a period of economic growth, which was facilitated by the absence of remnants of feudalism and serfdom, the presence of a huge amount of free land, and a variety of natural resources. Against this background, the process of the formation of the American nation was going on. Americans as a nation took shape mainly in the second half of the 18th century. Its core was made up of the British, Scots, and Irish. Then they were joined by the Germans, Dutch, Scandinavians, French, Italians, representatives of the Slavic peoples. Together with immigrants from Africa and Indians, this ethnic "melting pot" ultimately created the American nation. Two waves of immigration played an important role in its development. The first wave lasted throughout the 19th century. and was accompanied by an influx of English, Scots, and later - Irish and Germans. The second, or new, immigration occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. and included immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe (Poles, Jews, Lithuanians, Ukrainians).

By the IX-X centuries. Western Europe was fragmented into many small feudal states, almost independent of the central authority of kings and emperors. A hierarchical structure of land tenure was formed, associated with the relations of suzerainty and vassalage, as well as the estate system. Each estate occupied a strictly defined place in the feudal hierarchy, rights (privileges) and duties were predetermined by a place in this hierarchy: from the privileged nobility, especially the highest, to the peasantry burdened with a lot of duties.

In the XI - XIII centuries. the entire territory of Western Europe was a series of majestic impregnable castles, the owners of which, with the help of medium and small nobles (barons and knights), organized the surrounding area and the population living on it, which consisted mainly of peasants. The owners of the estates carried out the functions of state power on their territories: judicial (the symbols of the seigneur's omnipotence were prisons and gallows that "adorned" the entrances to castles), fiscal (tax collection), political (military detachments).

The Catholic Church occupied a special place in the feudal society of Western Europe. The church owned about a third of the lands, the population of which was in feudal dependence. The church itself was organized according to the feudal model according to the principle of strict hierarchy, and was headed by the pope on a monarchical basis. The Catholic Church had its courts, its military; a number of norms established by the church had legal significance (canon law). The clergy were the privileged class of feudal society, and the church was an important part of the feudal structure.

During the period of feudal fragmentation, Catholicism was the only force uniting the Western European world. Powerful economically and politically, the church played a dominant role in the ideology of medieval society. The absence of a sharp boundary between slave and feudal societies made it possible to use the apologetics of slavery to justify serfdom.

The ideological domination of religion and the church led to the fact that the main directions of the political and legal ideology of feudal society in Western Europe appeared in religious vestments. The common ideological basis of all political and legal doctrines of the Middle Ages was religious ideas, the texts of St. scriptures. The ideologists of the ruling class-estates, with references to the Bible, sought to substantiate class inequality, the privileges of the feudal lords, and the dependent position of the peasants. This goal was served by the texts about “the obedience of slaves to their masters,” “the establishment of power by God,” “non-resistance to evil by violence,” contained in the New Testament. The peasantry and townspeople expressed their protest against the feudal system in heretical movements.

Emperors and kings strove to justify their independence from the church in secular affairs; one of the most pressing issues was investiture (the right to appoint bishops). Defending themselves against the claims of the church, emperors and kings referred to the texts of the same scripture about the establishment of God for all (that is, their) power (“the existing powers are established by God”). They interpreted the "theory of two swords" in their own way - the sword of secular power does not depend on the church, since Christ said: "My kingdom is not of this world."

The legists' defense of the independence of secular power irritated the Catholic Church, which forbade the clergy from studying Roman law, as well as teaching it at the University of Paris.

The struggle between popes and emperors at times took on rather acute forms; the Catholic Church appealed to the subjects and vassals of the rulers it disliked, releasing them from the oath; kings and emperors resorted to armed force in the fight against church feudal lords; however, whenever popular movements took on a dangerous character, church and state acted together: kings and emperors helped to root out heresies, the clergy helped to suppress peasant uprisings.

The cities, which were under the rule of feudal lords, waged a fierce struggle with them, which at first often took the form of a secret conspiracy, and then turned into an open struggle for the commune and liberation from the seigneurial power. The development of commodity-money relations in Europe led to great changes, both in the landlord and in the peasant economy.

Both landlords and peasants began to sell on the market a part of their grain, livestock and wine products, and in this regard, move to more intensive farming - to drain swamps, clear forests, develop wastelands, plant vineyards, etc. domination of natural economy, in the XII century. new forms of economic development were already outlined and a partial transition to money rent was taking place. At the same time, corvée grew in a number of places and food rent increased.

The growth of the power of many large feudal lords, turning into independent political rulers - territorial princes, who used the development of cities and Germany's commodity production in their own interests, weakened the power of the emperor within the German kingdom. True, individual German cities (Worms, Cologne, Ulm, etc.), seeking to get rid of the power of their lords - bishops and princes, supported the emperors both at the end of the 11th century and later. However, this support for the imperial power was insufficient. The rest of the German cities became more and more princely.

Medieval society was primarily an agrarian society. Agriculture was based on manual labor. The peasants in the Middle Ages did not possess ownership of the land, but only used it, performing certain duties in favor of its owner (money rent, natural quitrent, corvee). The seigneur, within the limits of his possessions, was a kind of sovereign, possessing administrative, police and judicial power in relation to the seigneur's population. In the XI-XII centuries. the farmer, as a rule, had his own farm (domain), the land of which was cultivated by the corvée labor of the peasants.

In the middle of the IX century. all peasants turned from owners to owners of land plots. From free peasants-communes they became feudally dependent in accordance with the principles established by the state: there is no land without a seigneur and every free franc must find a seigneur.

Europe city feudal craft trade

very often underwent invasions (in the 9th-10th centuries) by Norman pirates. It was an economically backward and politically little influential outskirts of Europe at that time.

Byzantium played an important role in the political development of Europe in the early Middle Ages.

As a remnant of the Roman Empire, Byzantium retained its possessions in the Balkans, withstood the onslaught of the Arabs and acted as a link between East and West. Its capital, Constantinople, was a city of world importance and at the same time a trade center for all of Europe. However, busy with centuries of struggle with the Persians and Arabs, Byzantium almost did not interfere in the affairs of Western Europe, seeking influence only in Italy and Spain.

Therefore, the political situation in Western Europe was determined mainly by the Frankish kingdom, which arose at the end of the 5th century. Back in the III century. began the penetration of the Franks from across the Rhine into Gaul. In 486, the Franks defeated the Roman governor of northern Gaul at the Battle of Soissons and created their own state here, headed by King Clodwig of a noble Merovingian family. A decade later, Clovis defeated the Alamanns on the eastern border of his possessions and thereby strengthened his political positions. In the years 507-510. he inflicted a severe defeat on the Visigoths in southern Gaul. Clovis' successors conquered Burgundy in 534 and, having received Provence from the Ostrogoths in 536, finally subjugated the Alamanns who lived on the upper Rhine, and also conquered Thuringia. Even the Bavars and Saxons recognized their dependence on the Franks, and the Saxons agreed to deliver 500 cows to the Frankish kings annually. The internecine struggle of the Merovingian dynasty weakened the Frankish kingdom, but nevertheless it remained the most powerful state in Europe, and when the threat of Arab conquest loomed over it, then in the battle of Poitiers (732) the Frankish majord (the actual ruler of the state on behalf of the king) Karl Martell inflicted a decisive defeat on them and thereby halted their further advance to the north.

In 751, the kingdom of the Franks began to rule the new Carolingian dynasty. It lasted until the end of the 10th century, and during this period there was a further rise of the Frankish kingdom. It reached its highest rise during the time of Charlemagne (768-814).

After his father took Narbonne and Septimania from the Arabs (in 759) and conquered Aquitaine in the south of Gaul (in 760-768), Charlemagne conquered the Langobard kingdom in Italy (773-775). , captured the northeastern corner of Spain from the Arabs, creating here the "Spanish Mark" (at the beginning of the 9th century), defeated the Avars on the territory of Pannonia (in 795-796) and as a result of a long-term war (772-804) subjugated Saxons who lived beyond the Rhine. He achieved dominance over almost all of Western Europe and in 800 was proclaimed the Roman emperor. Only Norman pirates harassed Charlemagne's borders in the north.

However, his empire, which arose on the basis of the progressive enslavement of the peasantry and in the struggle of the feudal lords with the latter, collapsed within 30 years after his death.

As JV Stalin points out, similar to the "empires of the slave and medieval periods" that arose as a result of conquests, "did not have their own economic base and represented temporary and fragile military-administrative associations" that weakly connected the "conglomerate of tribes and nationalities that life and had their own languages ​​"1.

Even under Louis the Pious, an internecine war between the sons of the latter began, and after his death, the "war of the three brothers" ended with the conclusion of the Treaty of Verdun in 843, according to which the empire of Charlemagne was divided into three parts. As a result, the territory of the future France under the rule of Charles the Bald (west of the Scheldt) and the future Germany under the rule of Louis the German (east of the Rhine) became politically isolated. Lothair received Italy and a narrow strip of land between the Scheldt in the west and the Rhine in the east, part of which was later called Lorraine.

The Treaty of Verdun played a major historical role - it accelerated the territorial and political demarcation of the emerging peoples of Western Europe (French, Germans, Italians), and opened the period of its feudal political fragmentation, which reached its highest degree in the 10th century, when 32 independent states (duchies, counties, etc.).

More on the topic § I. Political development of Western Europe in the VI-X centuries:

1. § 1. Political development of Western Europe in the early Middle Ages (VI-X centuries)

General history [Civilization. Modern concepts. Facts, events] Dmitrieva Olga Vladimirovna

Political development of Europe in the IX-XI centuries

The completion of the formation of the system of feudal land tenure and the appropriation of public law functions by the magnates led to the disintegration of large political formations where they took place (France), and slowed down their formation in other regions (Germany, Italy, England). In Western Europe in the IX-XI centuries. feudal fragmentation reigned.

However, from the point of view of the institutional development of the state, fragmentation and particularism had their positive aspects: they were a natural reaction to the experience of poorly governed monarchies, which united, like the empire of Charlemagne, many ethnic groups and too vast territories that the king had to constantly travel around, having no other means. , no control apparatus. On the scale of small states, it was possible to more effectively implement politics and defend its borders, relying on the vassal militia.

A characteristic feature of Europe in the 10th – 11th centuries. - intensive construction of feudal castles (called "incastellomento"), which were erected not only by powerful lords, but also by feudal lords of the middle class. These "noble nests" dominated the district, and their owners - the shatelnans - acquired real administrative and judicial power over the local population.

One of the reasons for the widespread construction of fortified citadels was a new danger from the north. In the IX century. the Scandinavian Vikings, who in Europe were called "northern people" - Normans, the ancestors of modern Swedes, Danes and Norwegians, who were at the stage of decomposition of the tribal system and forced to leave the meager lands of the Scandinavian Peninsula due to their overpopulation, began to actively move on their ships along the coast of the Western Europe, exposing them to devastation. The Viking raids were one of the last waves of the Great Migration. The Normans entered the mouths of large rivers and moved along them deep into the territory of France and Germany, plundered the shores of Spain and Portugal, penetrated the Mediterranean Sea.

Kings and big lords sometimes hired Viking squads to their service, but it was rather dangerous: in 911, Rollon, the leader of the Danes - mercenaries of the French king, forced the latter to provide them with land for settlement on the continent, as a result of which the Duchy of Normandy arose. The Scandinavians quickly mingled with the local population and adopted feudal customs.

In the IX century. Norwegians colonized Iceland, and people from Denmark settled on the islands in the North Atlantic - Faroe, Orkney, Shetland, Hebrides. They terrorized the population of England with their raids and by the end of the 9th century. seized already about half of its lands, which were named "The area of ​​Danish law" - Danlo. The expansion of the Danes reached its peak during the reign of King Knut the Great (1016-1035), who united the lands of Denmark, Norway and England under his rule.

In the XI century. The Normans - descendants of the Rollon Danes - continued their migrations in two directions: in the south they advanced as far as Italy, invited there to support the local population against the Arabs. As a result of the skillful actions of their leader Robert Guiscard, they first subjugated all of southern Italy, and then moved against the Arabs and captured Sicily. The entire south of Italy fell into the hands of the Normans, who founded the Sicilian kingdom here.

In the west, England became the prey of the Normans, which William, Duke of Normandy, captured in 1066.

The activity of the Normans in Europe began to decline only in the XII-XIII centuries. Along with migrations, the danger for the countries of Western and Central Europe in the X century. represented the raids of the Hungarians - nomadic tribes, descendants of the Huns and Avars of Pannonia.

On the other side of Europe, the Arabs made extensive conquests. Having landed in 709 on the Iberian Peninsula, they, in alliance with the African tribe of Berbers (whom Christians called the Moors), defeated the army of the West Goths and captured almost the entire peninsula, with the exception of its mountainous northern regions, inhabited by the ancient autochthonous tribes - Asturians and Basques. From here, from Asturias, began the slow conquest of land from the Arabs by the Christian population - a process called the Reconquista. The reconquista stretched over eight centuries and had a profound impact on all aspects of the life and culture of local residents. Its centers were, along with Asturias, the Barcelona (Spanish) brand founded by Charlemagne, Navarre and Aragon. As the Moors were pushed back to the south, various Christian states arose, merged, disintegrated and disappeared in the liberated lands. In the first half of the XI century. the largest of these were the kingdoms of Castile, Navarre and Aragon and the County of Barcelona.