Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, 1492

by the end of the month of July next of the present year, they depart from all of these our said realms and lordships

resolve to order the said Jews and Jewesses of our kingdoms to depart and never to return or come back to them or to any of them.

they be able to export their goods and estates out of these our said kingdoms and lordships by sea or land as long as they do not export gold or silver or coined money or other things prohibited by the laws of our kingdoms, excepting merchandise and things that are not prohibited.

under pain that if they do not perform and comply with this command and should be found in our said kingdom and lordships and should in any manner live in them, they incur the penalty of death and the confiscation of all their possessions by our Chamber of Finance

Given in our city of Granada, the XXXI day of the month of March, the year of the birth of our lord Jesus Christ one thousand four hundred and ninety-two years.

we have been informed that in these our kingdoms there were some wicked Christians who Judaized and apostatized from our holy Catholic faith, the great cause of which was interaction between the Jews and these Christians

This proved by many statements and confessions, both from these same Jews and from those who have been perverted and enticed by them

Despite the number of Jews who fled before the edict of expulsion, it is not clear that Ferdinand and Isabella expected or wanted the Jews to leave.

Henry Kamen estimates that there were no more than 70,000 Jews in Castile (about 1.6 percent of the population) and no more than 10,000 Jews in Aragon (about 1.2 percent of the population).

Of those, the best evidence suggests that most converted rather than emigrated.

Over ten thousand Jews left via the Mediterranean coast in 1492–1493 (including Aragonese and Castilian Jews), and possibly as many as forty to fifty thousand left overall

most traumatic was the terrible cost to Jewish individuals and families, who were faced with the horrific choice of giving up their faith or their home

Most scholars, therefore, have explained the motivation for the expulsion in the context of anxiety about Jews and conversos.

Many scholars affirm that the true motive was not expulsion per se, but rather to encourage conversion of the remaining Jews in Iberia.

When King Manuel wished to marry the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spanish monarchs demanded that Portugal expel its Jews.

The expulsions from Spain and Portugal, 1492–97 (where the number of victims has been assessed by historians from 100,000 to several hundreds of thousands

Other estimates run from 100,000 to 800,000.

Following the expulsion from Spain, great numbers of Jews streamed into the Ottoman Empire and settled in various towns of the Balkans and Anatolia.