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Portugal and Spain made great discoveries in the 15th century including the discovery of America and the opening of sea routes between Europe and East Indies.
Following the 15th century, these two empires established trading networks that worked to contribute towards the creation of the first global economy.
Click here to watch short videos/extracts on Spanish and Portuguese Empires
On March 31, 1492, an edict was published by the Spanish throne called the Alhambra Decree.
The decree ordered the expulsion of all Jewish people from Spain, it's territories, and it's possessions, by July 31 - that is, four months from the day the decree was issued.
The reasons for Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand II's decree is still debated among scholars. Some scholars believe that it was to prevent the Spanish conversos, Jewish people who had recently converted to Catholicism, from reverting back to Judaism.
Some scholars believe it was a nationalism exercise to closely knit together the Spanish into one unified group. Some scholars believe that the move was based on stereotypes and fear of Jewish people.
The exact numbers of how many people were expelled are not known. Conservative estimates say 40,000 Jews were expelled, while others estimate that possibly 300,000 Jews fled Spain, and over 200,000 Jews converted to Christianity after the Alhambra Decree was issued.
The Jews who fled Spain were limited in their resources. According to the decree, they could not take gold, silver, or coins with them. They could sell their possessions, but they could not get money for it - instead, the Spanish crown mandated that Jews could only be given letters of credit for their belongings. In many cases, Jewish people were cheated out of their possessions - forced to trade their belongings for far less than they were worth.
Map of Spanish and Portuguese holdings, Spanish in red, Portuguese in pink
The Rise of the Spanish and Portuguese Kingdoms
Although Spain and Portugal are today thought of as Christian countries, they held by Islamic leaders for a very long part of their history.
Once controlled by the Roman Empire, they were briefly conquered by the Visigoths in 476 after the fall of the Roman Empire.
However, by 711, the Muslim general Tariq ibn-Zayid had conquered most of the Iberian peninsula and named the country "Al-Andalus."
Although some parts of the Iberian peninsula were only under Muslim rule for as little as 38 years, most of the peninsula was a Muslim controlled kingdom for about 600-700 years.
Christians were not persecuted under Muslim rule - they were free to worship as dhimmis, non-Islamic citizens, but they had to pay a tax to the Muslim controlled state.
The Reconquista
The Christian parts of the Iberian peninsula, who fought off Muslim rule, began a process that became known as Reconquista as early as 718, and ended in 1492. Reconquista, or "reconquest," in English, was a push to take the Iberian peninsula and put it under Christian rule. Reconquista was not a steady drive, it was sporadically enforced as Christian and Muslim rulers fought with themselves as much as each other during this long span of time.
The history of Reconquista is huge and very detailed, and if you want to know more of the details, check out this Encyclopedia Brittanicaarticle about the process. However, here are the highlights:
In the 1035, the Sancho III Garcés (Sancho the Great) created the northern kingdom of Aragon and began the big push to reconquer the peninsula. In 1118, Sancho the Great's successor, Alfonso I, captured the former Moorish capital of Zaragoza, and his son, Alfonso II made a treaty called the Pact of Calorza that gave him the Moorish kingdom of Valencia in exchange for giving up his claims on all other Moorish held territory. In 1212, the kingdoms of Aragon, Navarre and Portugal routed the Almohad emir and began the conquest of Andalusia.
In 1230, the kingdoms of Leon and Castille were joined by the coronation of Ferdinand III to Leon. Ferdinand was already king of Castille, and with the two kingdoms combined, he began the push to take over Andalusia, capturing Cordoba in 1236 and Sevilla in 1248.
The Spanish kingdoms continued to conquer and establish their power as independent nations until the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille united the Spanish crown into the country were more or less know today. Ferdinand and Isabella finished the Reconquista of Spain with the capture of Granada in 1492.
For an article on Moorish Spain and it's religious tolerance - check out this BBC Religions page on Moorish Spain
For information on the Sephardic Jewish exodus from Spain into Turkey, click here.
Spanish Expedition and Conquests
With the reunification of Spain came the beginning of the Spanish Empire, as Ferdinand and Isabella needed to give soldiers who were used to fighting Moors and Italians something to do. Many young men were encouraged to become Conquistadors and begin the colonial takeover of the Americas.
The 1492 discovery of the Americas gave Ferdinand and Isabella a way to expand their empire, control their restless nobles and soldiers from plotting against them, and gain access to resources such as gold, silver, timber, and other natural resources in the Americas.
Before Spanish arrived the population of the central and South America was about 50 million people but after one hundred years only about 8 million people were left.
European diseases that were brought over, such as smallpox and measles, to the Americas were deadly to the local people.
Additionally there was warfare by the Spanish and forced labor in mines and plantations
The local population were enslaved and forced to work by the Spanish which all contributed towards the large decrease in population.
Helpful links:
For more information on the civilizations of the Americas before Spanish Colonialism, look at the Resources for History Teachers page on the Mayans and the Aztec.
For information about Christopher Columbus and his "discovery" of the Americas - look at the Resources for History Teachers page about Christopher Columbus.
For a great overview of Spanish Colonization, check out the Spanish Colonization video from the Khan Academy.
For a more irreverent video about Christopher Columbus, check out the Adam Ruins Everything Video below:
For an alternate discussion about the impact and history of Spanish imperialism (and the inquisition), look at this article by the Guardian about the Hispanic Civilization Foundation, who argues that Spanish Imperialism and inquisition wasn't that bad, and wants to "improve the self-esteem and cohesion of Spaniards" with regards to their perceived contributions to Latin American society. Spain fights to dispel image of Inquisition and Imperial Atrocities - The Guardian.
Conflict with Muslim States
For an article on Spanish Turkish Relations, click here.
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