From the THG Archive: When a Greek peasant found a sculpture on the island of Milos, France saw a chance to regain lost glory. The History Guy remembers how the ghost of Napoleon helped to turn the armless beauty called the Venus de Milo into one of the most recognized sculptures on earth.
The Reconquista, or Christian reconquest of Iberia, took nearly 800 years. The fighting did not come without great attempts by Muslim powers across the strait trying to reestablish their presence in mainland Europe. The last gasp of that effort came in the 1330s, when the powerful Marinid sultanate of what is modern Morocco invaded in an attempt to reverse Christian gains and secure the perilous position of the Sultanate of Granada.