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Americans know that in 1492 Christopher Columbus "sailed the ocean blue," but how many know that in the same year the heroic Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella conquered the Moors in Grenada? Americans would also probably recognize 1588 as the year of the defeat of the Spanish Armada by Francis Drake and the rest of Queen Elizabeth's pirates. It was a tragedy for the Catholic kingdom of Spain and a triumph for the Protestant British Empire, and the defeat determined the kind of history that would one day be taught in American schools: Protestant British history.

As a result, 1571, the year of the battle of Lepanto, the most important naval contest in human history, is not well known to Americans. October 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrates the victory at Lepanto, the battle that saved the Christian West from defeat at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

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Moors

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Sapper Redux said:

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"Heroic" is a choice description not shared by many who suffered at their hands. Also, Spain attempted to colonize North America. They settled near Jamestown about 20 years before the English. They were driven off. As for Lepanto, just how many "saved all of Europe from Muslim domination" battles are there? Lepanto was a great victory, but it just stalled Ottoman expansion and led to no changes or reverses for over a century. Heck, the Ottomans conquered Cyprus after the battle. Additionally there is no evidence that a loss at Lepanto would have meant the end of Christian Europe.

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