Expulsion of Jews from Spain

Background

Jews in the medieval peninsular Christian states

Until the Fourteenth Century the Jews who lived under the Muslim Caliphates of Al-Andalus were tolerated.

The January 2, 1492, The Catholic Monarchs conquered the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada . The last Muslim king, Boabdil , withdrew to the Alpujarras after almost 800 years of Muslim rule was ended by the Reconquista .

A letter sent by the Catholic Monarchs to the Council of Bilbao in 1490 submitted to the United States of America, the Jews are tolerated and allowed to live in the kingdom as subjects and vassals.  ^[2]  Joseph Perez said “One must discard the commonly accepted idea of ​​a Spain where members of the three religions of the Book- Christians , Muslims and Jews -would have lived together peacefully during the first two centuries of Al-Andalus, and later Tolerance in the Christian Reconquest of Spain in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.”he states that communities of Christians, Jews and Muslims had never lived In the Christian kingdoms.  ^[3]  According to Henry Kamen , Jews and Muslims were treated “with contempt.”  ^[4]  And the Jews were treated with disdain.Three communities “lived separate stocks.”  ^[5]

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Christian anti-Judaism in the medieval West was intensified, which is reflected in the harsh anti-Jewish measures agreed in the Lateran Councilcelebrated in 1215 at the behest of the Pope Innocent III . The peninsular Christian kingdoms were no longer foreign to the growth of anti-Judaism violence in the Castilian code of religion. It was said that Jews lived among Christians “so that their presence would be reminded of those who crucified our Lord Jesus Christ “-but the kings continued to” protect “the Jews for the important role they played in their kingdoms.  ^[6]

In the fourteenth century the period of “tolerance” towards the Jews was over, passing into a phase of increasing conflict. According to Joseph Perez, “the changing times are not the mentalities, the circumstances.” The good times of Spain in the three religions had coincided with a phase of territorial, demographic and economic expansion, Jews and Christians did not compete in the labor market: The militant of the Church and the friars hardly found an echo of the fourteenth century, the wars and natural disasters that precede and follow the Black Plaguecreate a new situation. … [People] believe themselves to be the victim of a curse, punished for sins they would have committed. It invites the faithful to repent, to change their behavior and to return to God. This is when the presence of the “deicidal people” among Christians is considered scandalous.  ^[7]

The Jewish massacres of 1391 and its consequences

The first wave of violence against the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula occurred in the Kingdom of Navarre as a consequence of the arrival in 1321 of the crusade of the shepherds from the other side of the Pyrenees. The Jewry of Pamplona and Estella are massacred. Two decades later the impact of the Death Black 1348 provokes assaults on the juderíasof several places, especially those of Barcelona and other places in the Principality of Catalonia. In the Crown of Anti-Jewish Castile violence is closely related to the Civil War of the Reign of Pedro I in which the side that supported Enrique de Trastamara used anti-Judaism as a propaganda weapon, and the claimant accused his stepbrother, King Peter, of favoring the Jews. Thus the first slaughter of Jews, in Toledo in 1355, was carried out by the supporters of Enrique de Trastamara when they entered the city. The same happened when they occupied Briviesca. In Burgos, Jews who could not pay 1366 were reduced to slavery and sold. In Valladolid the Jewry was assaulted in 1367 to the shout of “Long live King Henry!”. There were no deaths, but the synagogues were burned down.  ^[8]

But the Great Disaster for the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula took place in 1391 when massacres took place in the juderías of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon. The assaults, the fires, the looting and the massacres begins in June in Seville, where Fernando Martínez , archdeacon of Ecija, taking advantage of the power vacuum created by the death of the archbishop of Seville, hardened his preaching against the Jews that had begun in 1378, and ordered the overthrow of the synagogues and requisitioning of prayer books. In January of 1391, a first attempt of assault on the Jews was murdered, their houses ransacked, and the synagogues converted into churches. Some Jews managed to escape; others, terrified, asked to be baptized. ^{[9]  [10]}

From Seville anti-Jewish violence extended throughout Andalusia, and then extended to Castile. In August it reached the Crown of Aragon. Murders, looting and fires took place everywhere. Many of the Jews who survived fled, many to the kingdoms of Navarre and of Portugal, France, and North Africa. Others accepted baptism to avoid death. The number of victims is difficult to know. About 400 Jews were murdered in Barcelona; in Valencia 250; In Lérida 68 …  ^{[11]  [12]}

After the massacres of 1391, anti-Jewish measures were intensified: In 1411 Castile ordered that Jews wear a red badge sewn to their clothing. In the Crown of Aragon the possession of the Talmud has been declared unlawful, and the number of synagogues for aljama is limited to one. In addition, the mendicant orders, with the support of the monarchs, intensified their campaign of proselytism, in which Valencian Vincent Ferrer played a prominent part, to convert Jews to Christianity. It was also decreed that Jews were obliged to wait for three sermons every year. As a result of the massacres of 1391 and the measures that followed, by 1415 more than half of the Jews of Castile and Aragon had renounced the Mosaic law and had been baptized, including many rabbisand important members of the community.  ^[13]

Jews in the fifteenth century

After the massacres of 1391 and the preaching that followed them, by 1415 scarcely to hundred thousand Jews continued to practice their religion in the crowns of Castile and Aragon. Joseph Perez said, “Spanish Judaism will never recover from this disaster.” The Jewish community “came out of the crisis not only physically diminished but morally and intellectually shattered”.  ^[14]

In the Crown of Aragon, Judaism in important places such as Barcelona, ​​Valencia and Palma virtually disappeared in 1424 the Barcelona Jewry was abolished because it was considered unnecessary-  ^[15]  and only the Zaragoza one remained. In Castile aljamas oz flourishing such as those of Seville, Toledo or Burgos lost much of their members; in 1492, the year of the expulsion, in the Crown of Aragon only a quarter of the former number of Jews remained. The famous Jewish community of Gerona, for example, was left with only 24 families. In the Crown of Castile not 80,000 were left. In Seville before the revolts of 1391 There were about 500 Jewish families. According to Joseph Perez, the time of the expulsion was less than 150,000 Jews, distributed in 35 aljamas of the Crown of Aragon and 216 in the Crown of Castile. In both the Crowns it was observed that the Jews had left the city and lived in the small and rural areas, less exposed “to the excesses of the Christians.”  ^[16]

After the critical period of 1391-1415, the pressure on Jews recovered from their synagogues and books confiscated, and they became able to avoid certain obligations such as carrying the ribbon or attending friars’ sermons. They could also reconstruct the internal organization of the aljamas and their religious activities, thanks to the agreement reached by the procurators of the aljamas in Valladolid in 1432 and sanctioned by the king, which means that the Crown the minority of its subjects has one more religion than the Christian one and recognizes the right of this minority to exist legally, with a legal status. ” “In this way the Jewish community is rebuilt with the approval of the crown.” Abraham Beneviste, who presided over the meeting of Valladolid, ^[17]

During the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, in the last quarter of the 15th century, many Jews lived in rural villages. Crafts and trade were not monopolized-international trade had passed into the hands of converts. While Jews have continued to trade money-Lenders , the number of Christian Lenders HAD Increased a lot. Jews also continued to collect royal, ecclesiastical and seigniorial rents, but their importance had also diminished-in Castile they were only in charge of a quarter of the income. However, in the court of Castile-But not Aragon-Jews held important administrative and financial positions. Abraham Senior was from 1488 treasurer-major of the Holy Brotherhood, a key organism in the financing of the war of Grenada, and also chief rabbi of Castile. Yucé Abravanel was “A greater collector of the service and mountaineering of the herds, one of the most healthy income and greater yield of the Crown of Castile.”  ^[18] However, according to Joseph Perez, the role of the Jews in the court must not be exaggerated. “The truth was that the state of the Jews, both in the bureaucratic apparatus and the management of the estate.”  ^[19]

We must therefore reject the claim that the Hebrew community at the end of the fifteenth century was immensely rich and influential. “In fact, the Spanish Jews at the time of their expulsion did not form a homogeneous social group. : Farmers, artisans, shopkeepers. ”  ^[20]  What they have been practicing the same faith, different from the one recognized, which is a separate community within the monarchy and which has been “owned”  ^[21]  In a letter dated July 7, 1477, addressed to the authorities of Trujillo, where incidents have occurred against the Jews, Queen Isabella I of Castile, after putting the aljama under her protection and prohibiting all types of oppression or humiliation against its members, states:  ^[22]

All the Jews of my kingdoms are mine and are under my protection, and it is for me to defend and protect them in justice.

Thus, the Jews “form a State in the State, but rather a micro-society next to the majority Christian society, with an authority [the rabbi greater] than the crown delegated to him over its members.” The aljamas were organized internally with a wide margin of autonomy. They designated by lottery the council of elders that governed the life of the community; collecting their own taxes for the maintenance of worship, synagogues, and rabbinical teaching; Under the norms of Jewish law, they had their own courts in the courts of Madrigal Cortes of 1476 criminal cases had passed to the royal courts. But Jews did not enjoy the fullness of civil rights: ^[23]

The situation in which the Jews lived, according to Joseph Perez, posed two problems: “as subjects and vassals of the king, the Jews had no guarantee for the future – the monarchy could at any time close the autonomy of the aljamas or require new Most important taxes- “; and, above all, “in these late years of the Middle Ages, when a state of modern character is being developed, there is no question of a problem of immense importance: A modern state? This was the real question. ”  ^[24]

The “converso problem” and the creation of the Inquisition

In the fifteenth century, Joseph Perez would probably be close to two hundred thousand people. Christian convert was applied to the Jews who had been baptized and their descendants. As many of them had done it by force They were always looking for a way to help themselves Old Christians .  ^[25] In the fifteenth century the positions abandoned by the Jews were mostly occupied by the converts, who concentrated there where the Jewish communities had flourished before 1391. They dealt with the activities of the Jews – trade, the handicraft – and now with the added they have been previously forbidden to the Jews. Some even enter the clergy becoming canon so prior is  ^[26]  and even bishops.  ^[27]

The view of Christians in the context of the belief of Christians in the United States, which was emphasized by the conscience of a person who had a differentiated identity, Christ. Thus popular revolts broke out against the converts between 1449 and 1474, when in Castile lived a period of economic difficulties and political crisis (especially during the civil war of the reign of Henry IV). The first and most important of these revolts was taken in 1449 in Toledo, during which a “Judgment-Statute” was approved that prohibited the access to the municipal positions of “no confesso of the lineage of the Jews” – an antecedent of the following blood-cleaning statutes of the following century. The origin of the revolts was particularly important in Andalusia was a situation of hunger, aggravated by an epidemic of plague – and in principle “not directed especially against the converts. It is the parties and the demagogues that take advantage of the exasperation of the people and direct it against the converts. ” ^[28]

In order to justify the attacks on the converts, it is affirmed that they are false Christians and that they are still practicing the Jewish religion in secret. According to Joseph Perez, it is a fact that those who converted to the blind furore of the masses in 1391, or by the pressure of the proselytizing campaigns of the early fifteenth century, some clandestinely returned to their old faith when it it was said that the danger had passed, of which it is said that  Judaizan.  The accusation of Crypto-Judaism becomes more plausible when some cases of prominent converts continue to observe the Jewish rites after their conversion. Purpose Joseph Judaizers, according to Joseph Perez, were a minority, although relatively important. The same affirms Henry Kamenwhen he says that “it can be said that in the end of the 1470’s there was no Judaizing movement highlighted or proven among the converts.” He also points out that when they were brought back into evidence, in many cases the “proofs” that were brought into the cultural elements of his Jewish ancestry – such as the Sabbath, not Sunday, as the day of rest – or the lack of knowledge of the new faith – such as not knowing the creed or eating meat in Lent –  ^[29]

This is how the convergent problem is born. The crypto-Judaism can not be credited with believing in the canonical doctrine of the Church by which Crypto-Judaism is assimilated to heresy , and as such must be punished. This is what they are saying to those of you who do not want to question the sincerity of their baptism because of those “false” Christians who are beginning to be called Marrano . And it also extends the idea that the presence of the Jews among the Christians is what invites the converts to continue practicing the Law of Moses .  ^[30]

When in 1474 she was acceded to the throne, married to the heir of the Crown of Aragon, the future Ferdinand II of Aragon , crypto-Judaism was not punished, “not, of course, by tolerance Or indifference, but because they lacked appropriate legal This article is only available in French. “Thus, when they decide to confront the” converso problem “, especially after the Dominicans of Seville, Fray Alonso de Ojeda , in 1475 in that city judaízan, even in an open way,  ^[31]  are addressed to Pope Sixtus IVto authorize them to fill inquisitors in their kingdoms, which the pontiff grants them by the Bull “Exigit sincerae devotionis” of November 1, 1478. “With the creation of the court of the Inquisition, the authorities will have the instrument and the means of in “According to Joseph Perez, Ferdinand and Isabella” were convinced that the Inquisition would be the only one of the converts to integrate Christians in the future.  ^[32]

The expulsion

The segregation of the Jews (1480)

From the beginning of his reign, Isabel and Ferdinand were concerned to protect the Jews – since they were “property” of the crown. For example, on September 6, 1477, in a letter addressed to the Jewish community of Seville, Queen Elizabeth I gave assurances about her safety:  ^[33]

I take under my protection the Jews of the aljamas in general and to each one in particular, as well as to his people and their goods; I protect them against any attack, be it of the nature that is …; I forbid that they attack, mate or hiera; I also prohibit a passive attitude if attacked, killed or injured.

Hence even the Catholic Kings until 1492 were reputed to be favorable to the Jews. This is what the German traveler, Nicholas of Popielovo says, for example, after his visit in 1484-1485:  ^[34]  His subjects of Catalonia and Aragon speak publicly and the same things Protector of the Jews and the daughter of a Jewish woman

But the Catholic Monarchs could not do away with all the vexations and discrimination suffered by the Jews, encouraged on many occasions by the preaching of the friars of the mendicant orders. They then made the decision to segregate the Jews to end the conflict. Already in the Cortes of Madrigal of 1476 The Kings of the Order of 1412 on the Jews – Prohibition to wear luxury dresses; Obligation to wear a slice on the right shoulder; prohibition to hold positions with authority over Christians, to have Christian servants, to lend money to usurious interest, etc. – but in the Cortes de Toledo of 1480 they would be able to live in their own private life. Until then the Jewish quarters, where Jews used to synagogues, butchers, etc., were also living in them and Jews living outside them. From 1480 onwards, the Jewish quarters were converted into ghettos surrounded by walls and the Jews were confined to them to avoid confusion and damage of our holy faith. A process for which it has been established, but which has not lasted for years, and which has not been exempt from problems and abuse by Christians. The Jewish quarters were converted into ghettos surrounded by walls and the Jews were confined to them to avoid confusion and damage of our holy faith. A process for which it has been established, but which has not lasted for years, and which has not been exempt from problems and abuse by Christians. The Jewish quarters were converted into ghettos surrounded by walls and the Jews were confined to them to avoid confusion and damage of our holy faith. A process for which it has been established, but which has not lasted for years, and which has not been exempt from problems and abuse by Christians. ^[35]

The text approved by the Cortes, which also included the Mudejar , read as follows:  ^[36]

We would like to make the following comments on the subject of such statements and comments on the subject of such statements and henceforth do not have their dwellings among the Christians or elsewhere outside the walls and places that would be necessary to the said Jewry and die.

The decision of the kings approved by the Court of Toledo, had antecedents since the Jews had been confined in some Castilian localities like Cáceres or Soria. In this last locality had been realized with the approval of the kings “to avoid dapnos [sic] that because of bevir and to dwell and to be the Jews among the christianos they followed”.  ^[37]  Fray Hernando de Talavera, confessor of the queen and who had opposed the use of the “convergent problem”, also justified the segregation “by avoiding many sins, which is followed by the mixture and a great deal of familiarity [between christians and Jews] and christian christian louboutin pas cher

According to Joseph Perez, with the decision to detain Jews in ghettos, it was not only a question of separating them from Christians, but also of imposing a series of obstacles on the development of their activities, so that they They would not have had more of a remedy than they would otherwise, but they would like to lead a normal existence. end up convincing themselves that the only solution is conversion. ”  ^[39]

The expulsion of the Jews from Andalusia (1483)

The first inquisitors appointed by the Kings arrived in Seville in November 1480, “immediately sowing terror”. In the first years and only for this city they dictate 700 death sentences and more than five thousand “reconciliations” – that is, prison sentences, exile or simple penances – that are accompanied by the confiscation of their property and the disqualification For public office and ecclesiastical benefits.  ^[40]

In their inquiries the inquisitors discovered that for a long time many converts had their Jewish synagogues.  ^[41] This convinces them that they will not be able to put an end to crypto-Judaism if converts continues to maintain contact with the Jews, for example: what they ask for the kings to be expelled from Andalusia. These approve and in 1483 give a period of six months for the Jews of the dioceses of Seville, Cordoba and Cadiz to go to Extremadura. There are doubts as to whether the expulsion in 1492 of the fact that the eight thousand families of Andalusia are in Carthage and others in the ports of the Crown of Aragon. On the other hand, the expulsion of the Jews of Saragossa and Teruel was also proposed, but it was not carried out.  ^[42]

According to Julio Valdeón, the decision to expel the Jews from Andalusia also obeyed “the desire to move from the frontier of the crowned of the crowned of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada , scenario, during the eighties of the fifteenth century and the first years of the 1990s, of the war that ended with the disappearance of the last stronghold of peninsular Islam.  ^[43]

The genesis of the expulsion decree

On March 31, 1492, shortly after the end of the Granada war, the Catholic Kings signed the decree of expulsion of the Jews in Granada, which was felt to all the cities, towns and lordships of their kingdoms with orders strict to not read it or make it public until May 1.  ^[44]  It is possible that some prominent Jews tried to nullify or soften it but did not have any success. Among these Jews stands out Isaac Abravanel who offered King Ferdinand a considerable sum of money. According to a well-known legend when the Inquisitor General Tomas de Torquemadafound out, he presented himself before the king and threw a crucifix at his feet, saying: “Judas sold our Lord for thirty pieces of silver; His Majesty is about to sell it again for thirty thousand.” According to the Israeli historian Benzion Netanyahu, quoted by Julio Valdeón, when Abravanel puts with the Queen Isabella said to her, “‘Do you think this comes from me? The Lord has gotten thought into the heart of the King?  ^[45]

A few months before a convicted victim of the death of the victim in the United States of America. to create the propitious environment for expulsion.  ^[46]

The Catholic Kings had been entrusted to the [inquisitor general] Tomás de Torquemada and its collaborators the writing of the decree fixing to them, according to the historian Luis Suarezprevious conditions Which would be reflected in the document: to justify the expulsion by the United States of America. That there should be sufficient time for Jews to choose between baptism or exile; And that those who remained faithful to the Mosaic Law could have made the laws of the land, but they could not afford gold, silver, or horses. Torquemada presented the draft decree to the kings on March 20, 1492, and the monarchs signed and published it in Granada on March 31. According to Joseph Perez, that the kings commissioned the drafting of the decree to Torquemada “demonstrates the leading role of the Inquisition] in that matter. ”  ^[47]

Of the decree promulgated in Granada on March 31, which was based on the draft of Torquemada – drawn up “with the will and consent of their altezas” and which is dated in Santa Fe on March 20 – there are two versions. One signed by the two kings and validates for the Crown of Castile and another signed by King Ferdinand and validates for the Crown of Aragon. Between the draft decree of Torquemada and the two final versions and between these, they exist, according to Joseph Perez, “significant variants.” In contrast to the Torquemada project and the Castilian decree, in the version addressed to the Crown of Aragon the protagonism of the Inquisition is recognized – “Persuading us the venerable father prior to Santa Cruz [Torquemada], In this article, we find that: “We find the Jewish sayings, by means of great and unbearable uses, to devour and absorb the properties and substances of Christians”; We reaffirm the official position that only the Crown can decide the fate of the Jews since they are the possession of the kings – “they are bears,” it is said; And contains more insulting expressions against the Jews: they are accused of making fun of the laws of Christians and of We reaffirm the official position that only the Crown can decide the fate of the Jews since they are the possession of the kings – “they are bears,” it is said; And contains more insulting expressions against the Jews: they are accused of making fun of the laws of Christians and of We reaffirm the official position that only the Crown can decide the fate of the Jews since they are the possession of the kings – “they are bears,” it is said; And contains more insulting expressions against the Jews: they are accused of making fun of the laws of Christians and ofidolaters ; Mention is made of the abominable circumstances and of Jewish perfidy. The Judaism of “leprosy” is qualified; It is reminded that the Jews “by their own fault are subject to perpetual servitude, to be slaves and captives.”  ^[48]

Regarding the essentials the two versions have the same structure and exposes the same ideas. The first part describes the reasons why the kings – or the king in the case of the “Aragonese” version – decides to expel the Jews and in the second part it is detailed how the expulsion is going to take place.  ^[49]

The conditions of expulsion

The second part of the decree detailed conditions for expulsion:  ^[50]

1. The expulsion of the Jews was final: “we must go to the Jews and Jews of our kingdoms and never return”.
2. There was no exception, neither by reason of age, residence, or place of birth – Castile and Aragon and those from outside.
3. There was a period of four months, which would be extended, until August 10, so that they would leave the kings’ domains. Those who did not do so would be better off than they would like to be punished with the death penalty and the confiscation of their property. Likewise, those who have aided the Jews were liable to lose their goods, vassals, and fortresses, and other inheritances.
4. Within the set period of the months of the month of May, their term of sale and their they were not arms or horses, whose export was also prohibited.

Although the edict did not refer to a possible conversion, this alternative was implicit. As the historian Luis Suárez pointed out, the Jews had the most terrible decision of their lives in the political and civil community, or leave the territory in order to preserve it. ”  ^[51]

The drama that lived the Jews is collected by a contemporary source:  ^[52]

Some Jews, when the term ended, went by. Many turned from the road … and received the faith of Christ. Many others, not depriving themselves of the country where they have been born and operated, have been baptized.

The most outstanding Jews, with few exceptions from which Isaac Abravanel stands out, decided to convert to Christianity. The most relevant case was that of Abraham SeniorThe chief rabbi of Castile and one of the closest collaborators of the kings. He and his relative were baptized on June 15, 1492 in the Guadalupe monastery, Isabel and Fernando being godfathers the kings. It took the name of Fernán Núñez Coronel and his son-in-law Mayr Melamed of Fernán Pérez Coronel – the same name of pile that the one of the king. In this case, like that of Abraham of Córdoba, he was given much publicity to serve as an example for the rest of his community. In fact, during the four-month period, they have been given a lot of weight, especially the rich and the most educated, and the vast majority of the rabbis .  ^[53]

A chronicler of the time relates to the intense propaganda campaign that unfolded:  ^[54]

In the synagogues and in the churches and in the fields, by the wise men of Spain, and was preached to them by the holy gospel and the doctrine of the holy Mother Church, and was preached and tested by their own Scriptures, how the Messiah who waited were Our Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ, who came into the world to whom they agreed, and all the others who came after them to be given to the truth; Before being deceived by the false book of the Talmud , they ignored it and ignored it.

The Jews who have not been prepared for the market in tremendous conditions. They Had to sell Their goods Because They HAD very little time and Had to accept the Sometimes ridiculous water equivalent They offert em in the form of goods That Could be the carried away Because The gold and silver output of the kingdom Was prohibited – the possibility of Taking Bills of exchange Were not much help Because The bankers, Italians for the most part, Demanded em Enormous interests. A chronicler of the time attests this:  ^[55]

They sold and squandered everything they could of their estates … and in everything there were sinister ventures, and the Christians had their estates, very many and very rich houses and inheritances for few monies; and they are praying with them, and they have a cloth and a cloth, because they could not bring gold gold silver.

They also had serious difficulties in recovering the money because of the delay of their arrival, or many of the debtors denounced “usury fraud”, knowing that the Jews, they would not have time for the short to prove them right.  ^[56]  In the letter, the Ampudia Jews complained that “The mayors of the said village made them feel free to pay and pay their dues”. and they do not want to make them pay for them, but they do not pay for them and they do not pay for them.  ^[57]

In addition they have to take care of the expenses of the trip – transport, maintenance, freight of the ships, tolls, etc. -. This was organized by Isaac Abravanel, who contracted the ships, who did not fulfill the contract or did not fulfill the contract. Avranel counted on the collaboration of the real official Luis de Santángel convert and of the banker genovés, Francisco Pinelo .  ^[58]

The kings had to give orders to be protected during the trip, because of the same suffered vexations and abuse. This is how Andrés Bernaldez , pastor of Los Palacios , the time when the Jews had to “abandon their land of their births”:  ^[59]

All the young men and daughters who were twelve years old were married to each other, they came from the world of children, and they were , old and young, and one of their wagons, and continued their journeys each to the ports that were to go; and went by the roads and fields where they went with many works and fortunes; some others, others rising being born, others being born, others being born, being others, having, they have been invited to baptism and some, with their care, they have become few, and the rabbis worked them up and made the women and young men sing and play tambourines.

The reasons for the expulsion

In the Castilian version reference is made exclusively to religious motives – in the Aragonese version it is also alluded to usury – because the Jews are accused of “heretical”, ie: serve as an example and incite the convert to return to the practices of his ancient religion.

^{[60]  [61]}

At the beginning of the decree It is said that: It is said that Christians who have judged and committed the apostasy against the Holy Catholic faith, being the most cause by the relations between Jews and Christians.  ^[62] The following are the measures taken by the kings to the communication between the Jewish community and the converts, a fundamental cause according to the kings and the Inquisition, that the new Christians, first of all the agreement of the Cortes de Toledo of 1480 by which the Christians were forced to live in, in order to prevent the Jews from “subverting and subtracting the Christian faithful from our holy Catholic faith.” Secondly, the decision to expel the Jews from Andalusia, “believing that this would be enough for those of the other cities and places of our kingdoms and lordships to cease to do and commit the aforesaid.” But this measure failed “” ^[63]

Finally, the reason for deciding to expel the entire Jewish community, and not just those of its members who allegedly wanted to “pervert” the Christians, is explained:  ^{[64]  [65]}

Because it’s a reason for such a crime, it’s a reason for such a crime, it’s a reason for such a university, and it’s a reason for such a thing. for the others punished and that those who are good and good for the good and bad.

As highlighted by Julio Valdeón , “undoubtedly the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian site is one of the most controversial issues in the history of Spain. “It is not surprising, therefore, that historians have debated whether or not there are any reasons for them to be abused by the Catholic Monarchs in the decree, there are others. the Jews to stay with their wealth, they seem to have been discarded, since the majority of the Jews, who were left to the most modest, operation – rather it was damaged because it was paid by the Jews.Nor does the argument seem to hold that the expulsion was an episode of classes – the nobility sought to get rid of an incipient bourgeoisie that represented the Jews and that they supposedly feared their interests – because many Jews were defended by some of the most important nobiliary families. of Castile, and because he was also among the ranks of the “bourgeoisie” of “old Christians” where anti-Judaism grew the most. ^{[66]  [67]}

The personal motives of the kings also seem to be ruled out, because they say they did not feel any repugnance towards Jews and converts. Among the trusted men of the kings Were Several Who Belonged to this group, Such As the confessor of the queen fray Hernando de Talavera , the steward Andres Cabrera , the treasurer of the Santa Hermandad Abraham Senior , gold did Mayr Melamed gold Isaac Abarbanel , without counting the Jewish doctors that attended them.  ^[68]

Current historians prefer to instead expulsion in the European context and stand out, Such As Luis Suárez Fernández gold Julio Valdeón, que le Catholic Kings Were in fact the last of the sovereigns of the great western European states to decree The deportation-the Kingdom of England did it in 1290, the Kingdom of France in 1394; in 1421 the Jews are expelled from Vienna ; in 1424 of Linz and of Colonia ; in 1439 of Augsburg ; in 1442 of Bavaria ; in 1485 of Perugia ; in 1486 of Vicenza ; in 1488 of Parma ; in 1489 of Milan and Luca; in 1493 of Sicily ; in 1494 of Florence ; in 1498 of Provenza …-.  ^[69]  The aim of all of them is to achieve unity of faith in their states, a principle that will be defined in the sixteenth century with the phrase ” cuius regio, eius religio “, that the subjects should profess the same religion as their religion. prince.  ^[70]

As Joseph Perez pointed out, the expulsion “puts an end to an original situation in Christian Europe: that of a nation that consents to the presence of different religious communities” with which it “becomes a nation like the rest in Christendom European”. “The University of Paris congratulated Spain for having an act of good government, an opinion shared by the best spirits of the time” ( Machiavelli , Guicciardini , Pico della Mirandola ) … […] it was so-called medieval coexistence that missed Christian Europe.  ^[71]

Julio Valdeón asserts that the decision of the Catholic Monarchs, who “showed themselves, in their first years of rule, clearly protective of the Hebrews,” was due to “pressure from the rest of Christianity” and to “the constant pressure of Church, who is often referred to as “deicide”, and who believes that the situation is more important than that in the Christian community. “In this sense he quotes the thesis of the Israeli historian Benzion Netanyahu that the expulsion was the consequence the climate of racism that was lived in the Christian society of the time.  ^[72] A thesis the latter – that the kings decided to expulsion to ingratiate themselves with the masses in which the anti-Jewish feelings predominated – that Joseph Perez considered without foundation. “Why should they worry about what do they do when they do not serve the masses?” Of the three surviving versions of the expulsion edict, only the third term “usury”, which was signed only by Don Fernando, refers to the subject of usury, in very harsh terms, and in the other two versions we do not read a single mention even the slightest mention of this matter. Accusations that had been repeated for centuries against the Jews: people deicide, desecration of hosts, ritual crimes … do not appear in any of the three versions. ”  ^[73]

For Joseph Perez, the decision of the Catholic Monarchs, as evidenced by the content of the Granada Edict , is directly related to the “converso problem”. The first step was the creation of the Inquisition, the second expulsion of the Jews to those who allegedly incited the converts to Judaize. “What concerned them [the kings] was the total and definitive assimilation of the converts, for which the previous measures failed, they resort to a drastic solution: the expulsion of the Jews to start evil.”  ^[74] “The idea of ​​expelling the Jews is part of the Inquisition, of which there is no doubt … The Inquisition found the expulsion of the Jews the best way to put an end to the Judaizing converts: removed the Catholic Monarchs take the idea to their own account, but this is not the direction of the inquisitors is low, they want to “clean” their kingdom, as the wrote wrote, but these concerns are also political: they hope that the Elimination of Judaism will facilitate the definitive assimilation and integration of converts into Spanish society “.  ^[75]

On the other hand, Joseph Perez, following Luis Suárez, places the expulsion within the context of the “modern state,” which requires greater social cohesion based on unity of faith to impose its authority on all groups and individuals of the kingdom . Unlike the medieval period in this type of state, it does not fit the groups that are governed by particular norms, as was the case of the Jewish community. It is therefore not coincidental, that they have not yet been forced to leave the city of Granada, they are decreeing the expulsion of the Jews. “What was intended then was completely assimilated Judaizers and Jews so that there would be no more than Christians. ^[76]  However, “assimilation” is in this quotation a euphemism: what was offered to the Sephardic was in fact the conversion to a faith that was not his own, hence his Emigration in Mass ).

Consequences

The end of religious diversity in Spain

As Joseph Perez pointed out, “In 1492 the story of Spanish Judaism ends, which will only lead to an underground existence, will be threatened by the Spanish Inquisition and the suspicion of a public opinion that saw In Jews, Judaizers and even sincere converts to natural enemies of Catholicism and Spanish idiosyncrasy, as understood and imposed by some ecclesiastical and intellectual leaders, in an attitude that bordered on racism. ”  ^[77]

The number of expelled Jews remains controversial. The figures ranged from 45,000 to 350,000, although the most recent investigations, according to Joseph Perez, place it at around 50,000, taking into account the death toll in Marzecos.  ^[78]  Julio Valdeón, citing also the latest investigations, places the figure between 70,000 and 100,000, of which between 50,000 and 80,000 would come from the Crown of Castile , though in these numbers the returnees are not counted.  ^[79]

The situation of those who have returned to the world of law and order, and the position of those who have been established in the past, confirm it. They were also able to recover their goods for the same price at which they had sold them. 1499. are are Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians Christians – calling them “transgressors,” for example.  ^[80]

As for the economic impact of expulsion, it seems to be a hard set back and stopped the birth of capitalism, which would be one of the causes of the decline of Spain. As Joseph Perez has pointed out, “in view of the published literature on taxation and economic activities, there is no doubt that the Jews were no longer a source of arrears. The Disputability of the Disaster and its Disparity in the Context of the Disaster and its Disappearance of the Modern World. Spain was not precisely an economically backward nation. ^[81]

A copy of the Amsterdam Gazette published in the Netherlands on September 12, 1672. The Hebrews of Amsterdam printed in the city of London. 180 years of being expelled from its ancestral soil (1492).  ^[82]  Document preserved and exhibited in Beth Hatefutsoth , Nahum Goldmann Museum and House of the Diasporas, University of Tel Aviv , State of Israel .

The Sephardic Diaspora and the Jewish Identity Continuity

Most of the expelled Jews settled in North Africa , sometimes via Portugal , or in nearby states, such as the Kingdom of Portugal , the Kingdom of Navarre , or the Italian states. As of the first two kingdoms also they were expelled to 1497 and 1498 respectively, they had to emigrate again. Those of Navarre settled in Bayona for the most part. And those of Portugal ended up in northern Europe (England or Flanders).

In North Africa, those who went to the Fez kingdom suffered all kinds of ill-treatment and were plundered, even by the Jews who had lived there for a long time. Those who fought the best in the Ottoman Empire, both in North Africa and in the Middle East , in the Balkans and the Republic of Ragusa , after having passed by Italy . The sultan gave orders to be welcomed and his successor The King of the United States referred to King Ferdinand: “You call him king who impoverishes his states to enrich the mine?” This same sultan commented on the ambassador feels by Carlos Vwho marveled that “they had cast the Jews of Castile, because it was to throw the wealth.”  ^[83]

As some Jews identified Spain and the Iberian Peninsula with Biblical Sepharad , the Jews expelled by the Catholic Monarchs took over Sephardi. These, in addition to their religion, They also kept many of their ancestral customs, and in particular they have preserved the use of the Spanish language, a language which, of course, is not exactly what was spoken in fifteenth-century Spain: like any living language, it evolved and suffered the passage of time, notable alterations, and the structures and essential features of those of the Castilian late medieval. […] The Sephardi never forgot the land of their parents, sheltering for her mixed feelings: on the one hand, the resentment for the tragic ones events of 1492, on the other hand, walking the time, the nostalgia of the lost homeland … “.  ^[84]

About judeoespañol as a socio-cultural and identity phenomenon, Garcia-Pelayo and Gross wrote in the twentieth century:

It is said of the Jews expelled from Spain in the s. XV and that preserve in the East the language and the Spanish traditions. The expulsion of the Jews […] is a large number of families of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly from Andalusia and Castile, to settle in the eastern Mediterranean countries dominated by the Turks, where they formed colonies which have survived to this day. , especially in Egypt , Algeria , Morocco , Turkey , Greece , Bulgaria[…]. These families, generally composed of Sephardic elements of good social status, have maintained their religion, traditions, language and even their own literature for four and a half centuries. The Spanish that they transported, the one of Castile and Andalusia of the XV century, removed from the Peninsula, has not been part of the evolution of Spain and Spanish Colonial America. His phonetics present some archaic but not degenerate forms; Its vocabulary offers countless Hebrew, Greek, Italian, Arabic, Turkish, according to the countries of residence.  ^[85]