26.3 Europe: a.d. 1101 to 1200  (Page 5/8)

Merino sheep had been introduced into Spain from Africa but they were highly sensitive to temperature and while they could graze in the northern highlands in Castile in the summer, they had to be driven far south to Andulusia for winter feeding. When conflicts between the northern Spaniards and the southern Moors became serious, these movements became difficult and ended as one of the provocations firing Spanish determination to drive the "infidels" from the peninsula. (Ref. 122) Slavery thrived on the Iberian peninsula and in the entire Mediterranean world, as Moors, African, Hungarians, Serbians and others were enslaved from one end of the Mediterranean to the other. Christians even enslaved fellow Christians. (Ref. 267)

Portugal

After winning wars against the Moors and Spain, with the help of papal intrigue, the Portuguese became independent from Castile in 1139 and by 1143 had established their separate kingdom under Afonso I of the Burgundian Dynasty. This did not stop the continuing wars with both the Moors and the Castilians, however. (Ref. 8)

France

With accelerated cathedral building in the 11th and 12th centuries, western Romanesque architecture developed into Gothic. Steep roof s elongated into spires, the cross-grained vaulted roof was introduced, the pointed arch