Editing Almogavars (section)

== Socioeconomic origin ==
Because of the [[Umayyad conquest of Hispania|Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula]], the wars of the [[Reconquista]] ("Reconquest") and the military campaigns of [[Caliphate of Córdoba|Al Andalus]], the Christian shepherds had to organize themselves into bands of outlaws and penetrate the enemy domain in search of what their people needed to survive. During these raids, which usually lasted a few days, the Almogavars would live off the land and sleep out in the open, skills acquired from their former life as shepherds, the majority of them having grown up in the mountains, where the harshness of the climate limited the resources of the land.

But after many generations of leading this new kind of life that they had been pushed into by the invaders, it seems that a genuine warrior spirit formed in these shepherd communities, so that they ended up not knowing how to live by any other means than making war. In addition, it was much easier to make a living through attacks lasting a few days than by working hard for the whole year. This way of life went on being adopted by the inhabitants of the areas that bordered the Muslim territories as the Christian kingdoms advanced toward the south. The presence of Islamic Almogavars fighting alongside Catholic Almogavars is also documented.<ref>"Joan Martínez Omar, Adalid del Rey (...) fuera Moro (...) este Adalid veniera con el Rey quando venció al Rey Alobasen cerca de Tarifa, et le guió la hueste por buenos logares, el Rey fiaba mucho dél (...) manguer que oviese seido de la ley de los Moros". "Crónica de Alfonso XI", in ''Crónicas de los Reyes de Castilla'', BAE, t. LXVI, Madrid 1953, vol. I, p. 343a.</ref>