In 1012, Abd al-Aziz al-Bakri established
the kingdom Taifa Huelva and was granted the title of Lord of Umba and Xaltis
Huelva and Salta.
The kingdom for forty years was safe and economically strong but fought with
the kingdom of Seville but in 1052 the kingdom fell in
the hands of Al-Mutadid and Abd al-Aziz.
As to the Christian era the city was conquered by Inigo de Mendoza in 1238 and
by the troops of Alfonso X, finally, in 1262. From there it was governed by
various nobles as Mathe Juan Luna, Diego Lopez de Haro and Juan Alonso de la
Cerda until the year 1351 when rights of the city were conferred.
A lot of History happened between 1466
regarding the Duke and 1812 between the
Governors and the Duke which was resolved
in the courts, and then the Spanish arrival in America had huge ramifications for
the then known world.
The Discovery of America
The Discovery of America
by Christopher Columbus in October 12, 1492. The Treaty of Alcacovas of 1479,
the African coast were closed to the Spanish sailors, and therefore, the coasts
of Huelva but the economic expansion of Castile
along with new developments and navigation techniques, allowed the land
and its people become more interested in the future expeditions across the
Atlantic.
The arrival of Columbus
at La Rabida and support from the Spanish Crown and various families made it
possible for small town like Huelva
to supply sailors.
The Discovery of America and the relations
between the province and the lands across the ocean are and have always been
somewhat present in the collective memory of this town. Pierre Chaunu said that
Columbus arrived in Portugal
fifty years too late and England
and France
half a century too soon.
The port is growing and major facilities
are built, now sadly missing is the Arch of the Star, which served as the
gateway to the city from the port. Growth has happened for hundreds of years
especially in the light of migrants to America, the Berber pirate attacks
and recurrent epidemics of plague.
The seventeenth
century also brought little good news with the war with Portugal, the
fall of the Duke of Medina Sidonia and the new plague of 1650 which killed
almost half the population.
At the beginning of
the eighth century the Arabs conquered the town of Huelva in 713 by Abd al-Aziz. Welba or
Gaelbah or Umba corresponds to the city developed from the earlier Roman urban
structure. A Fortress was the forerunner
of the castle, was protected by a 70 × 40 meters perimeter.
