March 31st, 1492: This Day in History

Many of us think about the happenings of 1492, and we tend to think of Columbus sailing the ocean blue. There is no doubt that 1492 was an important year, and that Spain was a big part of what was going on in the world at the time. However, there was more to 1492 than just discovering a new world. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were quite influential that year; the other event that they were involved in tends to be a dirty little secret: they expelled all the Jews from Spain, unless they planned on converting.

The War Against the Moslems

Ferdinand and Isabella didn't start with the Jews. They started by overtaking the Moslems that were left in the Iberian Peninsula. Centuries before, it looked like the Moslems were going to take over all of Europe. They had conquered all of the lands that are now Spain, and were held off by Charles "the Hammer" Martel in 732. That was the greatest reach of Islamic conquest in Europe at the time. After that point, Spain (which was then make up of smaller kingdoms like Castile and Aragon) slowly became a Catholic nation, although there were pockets of Jewish communities.

In the 1400s, Isabella was a princess of one of these smaller kingdoms, Castile. Isabella's brother was in charge of the country, and he planned on marrying her off to the king of Portugal. The king of Portugal was much older than she was, and Isabella was not interested in marrying him, so she arranged to meet with the much younger Ferdinand, who was a prince in the kingdom of Aragon, instead. After they met, they decided that they should get married immediately. Isabella's brother was not happy about it, but there was not much that he could do. He died six years later, and Isabella inherited the kingdom of Castile. Prince Ferdinand also inherited his kingdom of Aragon.

The two decided that they should take the kingdom of Granada, which was located to the south. Granada was a Moslem country. They were eventually victorious, and in 1491, they were able to conquer Granada. Most of the Moslems would leave the country; many of them left for North Africa.

Expelling the Jews

Although the Treaty of Granada, that was signed in November of 1491, guaranteed that Moslems would be allowed religious freedom in Granada, Ferdinand and Isabella changed their minds the next year about their religious toleration for Jews. They wanted Spain to be a Christian kingdom. On March 31, 1492, the Alhambra decree was signed, that stated that Jews had to convert to Christianity within four months, or they had to leave the country. The punishment for those that failed to follow this edict was death. Those that left lost much of their wealth, and some died during their journey out of the country.

Islam is Later Banned

The Moslems in Granada later revolted, and Ferdinand and Isabella used this as an excuse to nullify the Treaty of Granada in 1501. In 1502, Islam was no longer tolerated in the Kingdom of Castile. Many of them left for North Africa.

Columbus did not start his voyage to the New World until later on in 1492.

Sources:

"Alhambra Decree" - Wikipedia

Bauer, Susan Wise. "The Story of the World Volume 2". pp. 108, 254-256. Peace Hill Press, 2007.

"Christopher Columbus" - Wikipedia

"Treaty of Granada (1491)" - Wikipedia