Moors was the name given to
Africans by
Europeans. In fact, early writers chronicled them as being "black or dark people, some being very black."
In the fourth and fifth centuries, Africans began arriving in southern Europe. But it was in 711 A.D. that they marched in Spain and Portugal as conquerors under the command of Tariq ibn Ziyad. He marched into Spain and Portugal with 12,000 troops and conquered them within the year.
After the invasion of 711 came other waves of Moors even darker. It was this occupation of Portugal which accounts for the fact that even noble families had absorbed the blood of the Moor.
From that time onwards, racial mixing in Portugal, as in Spain, and elsewhere in Europe which came under the influence of Moors, took place on a large scale. In fact, the Moors purposefully bred with the Christians, until their final expulsion from Granada in 1492.
That is why historians claim that "Portugal is in reality a Negroid land," and that when Napoleon explained that "Africa begins at the Pyrenees," he meant every word.
The Moors ruled and occupied Lisbon and the rest of the country until well into the twelfth century. They were finally defeated and driven out by the forces of King Alfonso Henriques, who was aided by English and Flemish crusaders.
Moorish influence can be seen vividly in Spanish and Portugese architecture and art.