Under the leadership of Isabella and Ferdinand, Spain arose as the main guardian of Roman Catholicism. The marriage between the two united Castile and Aragon, but Isabella did not yield her powers to Ferdinand during her lifetime (Telushkin, 1991). After their success in driving out the moors from Spain, they embarked on a mission to purge the country of all non-Christians and heretics. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella signed an edict expelling all Jews reluctant to be baptized from the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. The Jews expelled from Spain came to be known as Sephardic Jews, about Sepharadh, a region in the Iberian Peninsula where a large number of Jews lived.
The expulsion of 1492 was motivated by the Spanish Inquisition, which was under the leadership of father Thomas de Torquemada. The Inquisition had been ongoing for 12 years before the Jewish expulsion (Pérez, 2007). Initially, the objective of the Inquisition as punish anyone who had converted to Christianity and then reverted to his/her ancestral faith. It did not target Spanish Jews nor Muslims. According to Torquemada, Spanish Jews posed a threat to the Christian faith because they would influence Jews who had converted to Christianity to revert to Judaism. Initially, Isabella and Ferdinand overruled Torquemada's request for the Jews to be expelled from Spain. However, their position regarding Spanish Jews changed in January 1492 after the defeat of the Muslim Moors in Granada by the Spanish forces (Roth, 2002). After unifying the country, they believed that Spanish Jews were nonessential. The signing of the expulsion decree on March 30, 1492, gave the Jewish population only four months to liquidate their properties and leave the country. Spanish "Christians" exploited the situation and paid meager prices for Jewish properties. Furthermore, the decree forbade the Jews from carrying silver or gold out of the country.
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Before the expulsion of Jews in 1492, a huge population of Jews (Conversos) had converted to Christianity (Roth, 2002). However, the nature of Jews who had converted to Christianity is important in understanding occurrences that contributed to the expulsion. It was believed that Jewish converts to Christianity was insincere and they still practiced Judaism. However, not all Jewish converts to Christianity were motivated by religion. Most of them converted because of anti-Jewish preaching and polemics. Other converted to Christianity to enhance their economic and social status. Jewish converts to Christianity assumed important positions in the Spanish society. They became bishops and occupied other important positions in the church. The rise of Jewish converts to important positions in government and the society increased the hostility and resentment towards the Jews. Attempts were made by Spanish Christians to prevent Jewish converts from gaining more secular and religious offices (Telushkin, 1991). Spanish Jews had intermarried with Christians, which complicated attempts by Spanish Christians to discriminate against the Jews.
It contributed to the first from anti-Semitism, which was different to anti-Jewish feelings. The doctrine of "purity of blood," argued that Jewish Christians were a race and that Jewish blood tainted a person to the 4th generation despite marriage to Spanish Christians (Roth, 2002). The principle denied Jewish Christians opportunities for consideration to any position. Discrimination against Jewish Christians became a biological issue. They were prevented from holding any office in the land or even attending universities. The need to purify Christians tainted by heresy was the basis for the establishment of the Inquisition in Spain.
It is estimated that about 100,000 Jews were affected by the expulsion. Sephardic Jews are the descendants of the Jewish population that was expelled from Spain. Many Jews died while trying escape from the country. Ship merchants charged exorbitant fees top ferry Jews to destinations in North Africa and Europe (Pérez, 2007). However, a significant number managed to reach turkey where they were welcomed by the sultan. He saw the Jewish refugees as important to the Turkish economy because most of them were skilled craftsmen. Some Jews fled to Portugal, but the decision by King Manuel to marry Isabella, the daughter of Spain's rulers affected their stay in the new country. As part of the marriage agreement, King Manuel was required to expel Portuguese Jews. Although he agreed, he was not willing to lose the accomplished and affluent Jewish community in Portugal. Ultimately, only 8 Jews were expelled from the country, but the remaining population was forced to convert to Christianity.
The expulsion had significant impacts on Spain. Spanish Jews were among the most educated, urbane and affluent inhabitants of the country, and the expulsion affected the country economically (Pérez, 2007). During the expulsion, the European economy was changing from agrarian to industrial; therefore, the loss of the skilled and educated Jews reduced Spain's competitiveness in Europe. It also enhanced the legality of the inquisition, which continued to affect the society. A century after the Jewish expulsion, 300,000 Spanish Muslims were expelled from the country, which reduced the Spanish population further (Pérez, 2007).
The Spanish Jews who settled in North Africa, Turkey, Italy, and other parts of Europe and the Arab world became, the Sephardim Jews. Following the expulsion, Sephardim Jews restricted its followers from settling again in Spain. Considering that their stay in Spain had been successful and happy, they saw the expulsion as the highest form of betrayal. Sephardim Jews remember the expulsion of 1492 with bitterness. The Expulsion remained the most infamous in Jewish history but was overturned in 1968 during the Second Vatican Council.
References
Pérez, J. (2007). History of a tragedy: the expulsion of the Jews from Spain . Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Roth, N. (2002). Conversos, Inquisition, and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain . Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press.
Telushkin, J. (1991). Jewish Literacy . New York: William Morrow and Co.
