Expulsion · Spain · 1492
Ferdinand and Isabella made remaining openly Jewish incompatible with remaining in their kingdoms.
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1492
Expulsion · A deadline to leave a lifetime behind
Ferdinand and Isabella made remaining openly Jewish incompatible with remaining in their kingdoms.
The monarchs’ order
In March 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella ordered Jews who did not convert to leave their kingdoms within months. The decree claimed Jewish contact endangered the faith of converts. It assigned collective guilt to a living community instead of assessing any individual’s actions.
A forced choice
Families faced conversion or departure. Leaving meant arranging travel, disposing of possessions and finding somewhere that would receive them under a short deadline. A decree about religious unity became a crisis of homes, work and family ties. The expulsion was a political decision, not a natural end to coexistence.
The story continues elsewhere
Sephardic Jews built new lives in North Africa, the Ottoman Empire and other destinations. They carried languages, religious traditions and memories of Iberia with them. Spain’s rulers could remove people from their territory; they could not make the community’s history stop at the border.