The year 1492 was transcendental for the future of the kingdoms of Spain, it must be remembered that the Spanish nation did not exist, but rather kingdoms, which, as a result of the marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, later met in a single national state, Spain. Under this idea of uniting the Spanish kingdoms, under a single monarch, a single god and religion, the Catholic kings conceived the idea of expelling the Jews.
After Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand defeated the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula, the kingdom of Granada, on March 31, 1492, the Catholic Monarchs signed the long-awaited edict known as the Alhambra Decree, which ordered the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. The edict was addressed to the Jewish community of all its kingdoms, leaving them only one option: leave or convert to Catholicism.
The kings of the Spanish kingdoms and their subjects had been tolerant of Judaism, the community prospered a lot, but their position was declining, at the same time that the power of the kings increased and they were depending more on the Catholic Church to legitimize their royal position. The papacy went on a crusade against the Jews, causing them to lose the esteem of their royal protectors, and their rights as royal subjects.
At the end of the 14th century, there were massacres of Jews in the main cities of the kingdoms of Spain, based on accusations without evidence that they committed ritual murders of Christians. The Jews were persecuted, attacked and sentenced to heavy penalties. Many fled Spain after the anti-Semitic massacres, pogroms, of 1391 in the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Navarra. Some of those who remained agreed to convert to Christianity, while others were forced to convert. These forced converts were called Anusim ("coerced" in Hebrew) or "new Christians." When authorities suspected that observant Jews were encouraging new Christians to continue to observe Jewish law in secret, they decided to segregate the two groups. Therefore, the Jews were expelled from their homes and transferred to separate neighborhoods, ghettos. In 1481, the Spanish Inquisition began to brutally persecute the Anusim and in 1483 a deportation order was issued for the Jews of Andalusia.
Although it sounds paradoxical, the incorporation into Jewish clothing of elements such as the Star of David or other signs, stems from that time, and is due to the inability to recognize a Jew among Catholics, since a Jew did not present any racial difference with Christians.
We must then understand that the order to expel the Jews in 1492 was not an isolated event, but a long process, postponed by the Catholic Monarchs for as long as they could, but its execution became untenable, to maintain peace with the papacy. and the local church, and above all to protect the converts, who they considered, would never fully integrate into the Catholic faith if they maintained contact with Jews, who would pervert their faith. However, the stigma against those who converted haunted them for a long time. They were subjected to further prejudice stemming from the belief that Jewish blood was contaminated, and that the conversions were not real. For the Catholic Church, the Jews converted to the faith of Christ, called crypto-Jews or Marranos, had only done so to keep their property and continue practicing their professions. Many converts ended up at the stake accused of being Judaizers. Others, the lucky ones, had to endure torture in the Spanish inquisition to make them confess that they kept Jewish rituals private.
"In the same month that Their Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, issued the edict that all Jews were to be expelled from the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery towards the Indians". This is a passage that Christopher Columbus wrote in his diary. Some have highlighted the coincidence, as Colon points out that at the same time that the challenges were issued, the edict authorized the expedition, and that Columbus's first voyage also coincided with the deadline for the Jews to stay, the end of July, which was extended until August 10. The admiral set sail on August 3, which is why it is speculated that most of his crew were converted Jews, that Columbus organized his trip with such haste because he feared the events that would happen when the deadline for the stay of the admirals arrived. Jews. Was he afraid that his crew would be victims of the persecution of Jews who would follow one another in the kingdoms of Spain in search of those Jews who had not accepted the expulsion?
It is estimated that by 1492 10% of the inhabitants of the kingdoms that included Castile and Aragon were Jews, there are no estimates on how many converted and how many left, but some scholars believe that some 100,000 Jews, a minority if we stick to the fact that the Jews were 10% of the Hispanic population, they left the kingdoms of Isabel and Ferdinand. Most crossed into the kingdom of Portugal, where they found temporary refuge, as the expulsion was extended to Portugal in 1497, and those who refused to convert to Christianity were expelled once more.
Many Jews emigrated to other countries such as the Ottoman Empire, the sultan himself received the exiles in his ports on more than one occasion. They also took refuge in the kingdoms and republics that coexisted on the Italian peninsula, such as Naples and Venice. In turn, France, from which they had been expelled earlier, welcomed the Jews back.
Before World War II, the presence of Sephardic communities was common in Greece and Turkey, the descendants of the Jews who were exiled from the Spanish kingdoms settled and preserved the Spanish language, surprising more than one traveler in the 19th century. listen to speak Spanish in Ottoman lands. However, that great Sephardic community of the eastern Mediterranean was lost because of the War. Many, especially in Greece, escaped when Hitler invaded the country, others suffered persecution and expulsion again, but this time to concentration camps from where they would never return.
It can be said that the edict of March 31, 1492 was the biggest mistake made by the Spanish kings, who gave in to the church, which sought to eliminate Judaism from Europe, and without looking for it, inaugurated a dark era for Spain, which was seen overwhelmed by the wealth of the new world, without having officials capable of managing such income. The best men in Spain embarked on the Americas, seeking to get rich quickly, to the detriment of the development of productive activities in the peninsula that would guarantee the economic progress of the kingdom. With the expulsion of the Jews, Spain lost a generation of men of science. Paradoxically, many descendants of Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal illuminated the development of nations such as England, Holland or France with their knowledge.
