Why did Spain expelled all the Jews in1492?

Question

Why did Spain expelled all the Jews in1492?

Answer 1

They weren't all expelled.They had the option to convert to Catholicism or leave. Some were executed who refused to do either. That was during "The Inquisition".

I'm not sure if your date is correct or not. I do know that 1492 is the date that Christopher Columbus discovered the new world while sailing under the flag of Spain.

Answer 2

Those who wouldn't convert to Christianity were forced out.

Answer 3

Most probably to get rid of the debts of the Catholic Kings. But this is not proven!! The jewish community were the bankers.

The moros were expelled much later!

Answer 4

Because the catholic kings in 1492 wanted that alone there was an alone religion in the Iberian peninsula and I force all the Muslims and Jews to turn to the Christianity. The one who did not do it was expelled. Because of it at present in Spain they all are Christian

Answer 5

That was not fair.   I love the Jewish pepole they gave us Jesus.

Answer 6

The Jews in Spain were Spaniards, both as regards their customs and their language. They owned real estate, and they cultivated their land with their own hands; they filled public offices, and on account of their industry they became wealthy, while their knowledge and ability won them respect and influence. But this prosperity roused the jealousy of the people and provoked the hatred of the clergy; the Jews had to suffer much through these causes. The kings, especially those of Aragon, regarded the Jews as their property; they spoke of "their" Jews, "their" Juderias, and in their own interest they protected the Jews against violence, making good use of them in every way possible.

There were about 120 Jewish communities in Christian Spain around 1300, with somewhere around half a million or more Jews, mostly in Castille. Catalonia, Aragon, and Valencia were more sparsely inhabited by Jews.

In 1492's Inquisition many were forced to convert to christianity or leave.   Those that refused to convert were expelled.

Answer 7

Joey,

Of course the date is correct.  In fact, some/many of Columbus' sailors were Jewish, and there is a theory (currently unprove/disproveable) that Columbus, himself was Jewish.

The Jews were not the only expellees.  The king and queen also expelled all the Moors, and the whole thing happened as a result of the great victory against Boabdil in Granada (he was the Moorish king) in January of 1492.

Ísabel was a little paranoid, in my opinion.  There was ALWAYS some level of fear, mistrust, and prejudice against the Jews, all over Europe.  There was that whole Jews being responsible for the death of Jesus, thing, and, as Davey boy said, through their industry, and intelligence and the stress on education in the Jewish communities, they were often very wealthy and educated.  They were the bankers and doctors and mathematicians in Spain, and from the first century BCE until the 15th, was considered the Golden Age of the Jews.  This prejudice and fear fostered lovely stories such as those claiming that the Jews were witches (that MUST be why they can cure illnesses the christian doctors could not) and that they drank the blood of Christian babies in their secret ceremonies.  

All of this prejudice made many Jews convert to Christianity on the surface, so they would not have to face all that negative feeling from their neighbors, but then, as they went underground (literally, in many cases) with their Jewish rituals, they were now committing heresy.  Not to negate Davey´s information about there being strong communities in the Center of the country, there were also very large and prosperous communities in Andalucía.  In fact, the Inquisition (with a capital I) actually began in Sevilla, in the south.  The story is, there was this young woman, who was dating a young man she had met at church.  For whatever reason, he became curious about some times when she refused to see him, and secretly followed her into the basement of her home, where her family was celebrating Passover Seder.  He didn´t understand the Hebrew prayers they were reciting, and assumed they were practicing witchcraft, and reported them to the priest, who called upon Ísabel, and the Pope to begin an inquisition against all suspected Jewish and later Muslim heretics.  Torquemada was named Grand Inquisitor, and, well, the rest is history.  This was in the 1480´s.  When they began discovering how many false converts there were, that contributed to Ísabel´s belief that the country should be 100% Catholic, and they decided to give all non-christians the choice to either convert fully, or leave the country.

Those who chose to remain in Spain, under false pretenses, continued to be persecuted, and eventually, were either tortured, executed (or both) or fled to tiny communities where they became quite inbred.  There is a tiny community that was found in the hills of central Spain somewhere in the middle 1970´s.  The people were massively inbred, some quite deformed, and they didn´t understand Hebrew nor did they understand many of their little traditions, but they continued marrying only within their community, and said the traditional Hebrew prayers, celebrating Sabbath on Saturday, and hiding underground to make flat bread in the Spring (not really understanding much of what or why they were doing it).  Actually, there are quite a few such stories that take place in the Americas, as well.  Even as close to my home, as Pueblo, Colorado.  

To this day, the descendants of those who converted are referred to as "Nuevos Cristianos", and there is still some stigma attached to the whole thing.

Why were they expelled?  Mostly it was Ísabel´s paranoia, and distrust of something she didn´t understand, coupled with a desire to have the country be all one religion.  The result was, for one thing, there were no more good doctors, and the plague overrode the country, with many more people dying than was necessary, and there were no more good economists, so when the gold and silver came flooding into the country from the Americas during the "Golden Age" of Spain, there was no one there to control its flow into the economy, resulting in massive inflation, which meant an unbalanced import/export balance, and no one in the rest of Europe wanted to pay the inflated prices of Spanish goods.  Spain fell  into a depression that lasted about 300 years.  They're only just coming out of it in the last ten years or so.

Answer 8

After the fall of Granada an Edict of Expulsion was issued against the Jews of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella

(March 31, 1492). It ordered all Jews of whatever age to leave.