Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (Alhambra Decree)
The establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 marked the start of a sustained assault on religious minorities. With Granada conquered, Ferdinand and Isabella issued the Alhambra Decree on 31 March 1492, ordering all Jews who refused baptism to leave Castile and Aragon within months. Tens of thousands — estimates range widely — were expelled, abandoning property and credit networks; many resettled in the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, and North Africa, while others converted. The expulsion eliminated physicians, tax farmers, merchants and artisans whose fiscal and economic roles could not easily be replaced, and it deepened suspicion of the converso (New Christian) population that remained. The decree fused with the developing ideology of limpieza de sangre (purity of blood) and crusading nationalism, the same ethos that would justify the violence of the American conquests. It is a paradigmatic case of a ruling group destroying a key minority population for confessional and political ends.
- Year: 1492 CE
- Category: Political
