Was Las Navas a decisive battle?

Abstract

From the perspective of military history, the Christian victory of 1212 was neither a decisive battle in the history of the peninsular kingdoms nor a significant tipping point in the balance of power between Christians and Muslims. Neither was the fate of the “Reconquest” resolved, nor was the “West” saved from Islam, on the morning of 16 July 1212. The historical events that took place during the following decades after the battle – the crisis of the Almohad Empire, the collapse of al-Andalus, the Christian expansion southwards – depended more on a range of complex socio-political factors than on the result of a mere pitched battle, important as it was.