The Visigoths settled in Spain after the fall of the Roman Empire and established a kingdom, although Spain was not as sophisticated as it had been under the Romans. By the early 8th century, the Islamic conquest had come to the neighboring shores of North Africa, and the Visigoths were in a dynastic struggle. In April of 711, Berber commander Tariq Evan Zion led a force into southern Spain, and King Roderick, the last king of the Visigoths, was killed in the Battle of Guadalupe. The Muslim army was soon heavily reinforced by the governor of Africa, and they quickly moved in and took the populated Valley of the beta's River, which they called Wadi el kebir, or the great river. The cities of Cordoba and Seville were located along its banks, and in time, these two cities would become the illustrious capitals the Arabs would call their new province Al-Andalus.

By the year 720, nearly all of the Iberian Peninsula was under the control of the Caliphate. However, a small sliver of land in the extreme north was protected by the Cantabrian Mountains, and this last bastion where the Christians were holding on by their fingernails would eventually be known as the Kingdom of Asturias. The Kingdom of Asturias takes on an almost mythological presence, at least in the minds of later Christian chroniclers. At this point in history, the Conquista was very little to do with actual conquest and retaking of Muslim land and much more to do with simply surviving, and this would be essentially its major goal for the next 300 years.