1320 -- The Spanish Colonize the Bay of Algiers

Alfonso XI, King of Castile and hero of the Battle of Rio Salado in 1340, when the Spanish (Visigothic Christians) prevented the last significant Muslim invasion of the Iberian peninsula.

711 --Arabized Berber invasion of Visigothic Spain 

1085 -- The Christian Visigoths (Spanish Kingdom of Castile)  recapture the city of Toledo from the Berber Muslims.

1086 -- Almoravid Berbers (Morocco) invade southern Spain, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar.

1094 -- The Castilian knight know as El Cid conquers Valencia from the Berber muslims, creating his own realm there.

1099 -- The Death of El Cid.

1142 -- The Almohad movement overthrows the Almoravid dynasty in Morocco, obtaining their empire in southern Spain and Morocco.

1159 -- Almohad Empire captures Algiers from the Hammadid Berbers.

1236 -- Christian Visigoths (Castile) recapture Cordoba.

1248 -- Christian Visigoths (Castile) recapture Seville

1312-1350 -- Reign of Alfonso XI of Castile

Alfonso managed to extend the limits of his kingdom to the Strait of Gibraltar after the important victory at the Battle of Río Salado against the Marinid Dynasty in 1340 and the conquest of the Kingdom of Algeciras in 1344. Once that conflict was resolved, he redirected all his Reconquista efforts to fighting the Moorish king of Granada.

1320 -- Castilians under Alfonso XI begin occupation of the Peñón of Algiers (Spanish: Peñón de Argel), a small islet in Algiers harbor (now attached to the mainland). They establish on-going trade with the Almohad Berber city on the mainland.

1340 -- Battle of Rio Salado, near Tarifa. End of the Muslim attempts to recapture Spain from across Gibraltar. Alfonso XI defeats the last significant invasion of the Iberian peninsula from the Muslim Berbers in Africa.

Alfonso is variously known among Castilian kings as the Avenger or the Implacable, and as "He of Río Salado." The first two names he earned by the ferocity with which he repressed the disorders caused by the nobles during his long minority; the third by his victory in the Battle of Río Salado over the last formidable Marinid invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 1340.

1475 -- Ferdinand of Aragon becomes King of Castile by marriage to Isabela, heir to the Crown of Castile. Large step in the unification of the eventual Kingdom of Spain.

1479 -- Ferdinand II is crowned King of Aragon by inheritance. Castile and Aragon united in personal union.

1492 -- Fall of Granada to Castile and Aragon.

1492 -- First voyage of Columbus

1510 -- The Spanish under Ferdinand II fortify their existing settlement at the Isle of Peñón in the Bay of Algiers.

Ferdinand the Catholic (Ferdinand II), by the "Meister der Magdalenen-Legende"