How unified was Spain Before the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand?
Spain wasn’t unified at all it was a series of Christian kingdoms with the exception of Granada. Granada was actually a Moorish or Muslim kingdom. At one point all of Spain was ruled by the Moors until the Christians drove them into southern Spain or Granada. After pushing the moors back the land was divided into kingdoms. When Ferdinand and Isabella married they united the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. They would eventually unify with the remaining Christian kingdoms in Spain and drive out the moors taking Granada also.
When Ferdinand and Isabella married, there were five christian kingdoms on the Iberian peninsula: Portugal, Leon, Castile, Aragon, Navarra. After completion of the reconquista, Granada became the sixth christian kingdom. Part of Navarra became part of France, and Portugal was part of the union only from 1580 until sometime in the 17th century (difference between factual independance and its recognition). The kingdoms were formerly united only in the person of the king. But actually there were certain institutions concerned with military, court, and foreign questions that the monarch installed for all his kingdoms together. The great change came in the year 1700 when the house of France (Bourbons) succeeded the house of Austria(Hapsburgs). Then the kingdom of Spain was founded.
What sparks Unity? Language and the Church. The marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand was planned long before their union. Spain was much like Germany – – – yes seperate Kingdoms and Dukedoms and wide spots in the road proclaiming their Sovereinity, though there were regional languages, most of what became Spain spoke a common tongue and most of all there was the Catholic Church. The dream of bringing all of the Iberian Pennisula under one ruler was kicking around for several hundred years before Ferdinand and Isabella made it a reality (Isabellas father planned to marry her to Aragon when she was in the womb). Oddly enough the group that made it possible were the Jews. The Jews were the Middle Class. The merchants and professionals saw the need for unification, education was a Jewish tradition and with education came realization that the way to increase prosperity was a unified Spain. Their reward for financing Castillian and Aragon Nobles in their War of Reconquest (and to be honest the
