Cross-border relations: the frontier of war (II)

After the Reconquest the new inhabitants, who settled around castles for safety, took charge of the scarce infrastructure available and developed a self-sufficient economic model based on farming and traditional shepherding. The new lords of the land and the war, who wished to keep their subjects united and in fear, encouraged distancing and created a sense of insecurity so as to ensure the system of status and estate privileges so typical of the Middle Ages.