What was the reason for the Holocaust of 1492?

Answer 1

As a first note, calling the Spanish Inquisition a Holocaust is quite strong and not commonly used and as a result, this answer will avoid calling what happened in Spain by that name.

Understanding Spanish History prior to that point is important as is understanding the demographic make-up of Spain at the time. In 1492, Spain had been reconquered from the various Arab, Berber, and Muladi (Iberian Muslim) Kingdoms. The southern part of Iberia was not yet majority Christian since the reconquered territories remained majority Muslim. Jews were a large and important part of Southern Spain, but not overwhelmingly numerous. The Wars of Reconquest had taken nearly five centuries before achieving this goal, so the war weariness of the Spanish Christians must be taken into account. The Proclamation of 1492 gave Jews and Muslims three options: convert, flee, or die. Many chose to flee or to convert, which meant that they were not killed. (This is as opposed to the Nazi Holocaust where Jews had no way to "unbecome" Jewish and nowhere they could go to flee.) Those who stayed, but did not convert, sadly perished or successfully maintained a form of Crypto-Judaism or Crypto-Islam. It was the search for these Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Muslims that prompted the Inquisition (a trial to determine somebody's true faith through the most inhumane forms of torture).

Reasons for the Inquisition:

1) Insurrection Prevention: The Muslims and the Jews of Southern Spain were quite a large population. Given the fact that they had previously had their own countries, which in the past were conquered and bolstered by Moroccan Berber Muslim Kingdoms, it was not impossible to imagine that Muslims and Jews might rise up together to rebel against the power of Castille and try to secure a new Muslim country. Not wanting this is in the slightest, Queen Isabella of Castille wanted to evict most of the Muslim and Jewish population. Therefore there would be less incentive for the remaining Muslims and Jews to rebel and for Morocco to intervene. (By the mid 1500s, Morocco was no longer an issue for Spain, but in 1492, it was.)

2) Union: Queen Isabella was joining her confederation of Kingdoms (Castille, Leon, Basque Country, Asturias, and others) with those of King Ferdinand (Aragon, Catalunya, Valencia, the Balaeric Islands, and others). Because of Spain's confederal style, there was no union from overarching laws. (Barcelona and Madrid did not have the same legal system until the 1830s.) There was no unity in ethnicity as Basques, Asturians, Leonians, Castillians, Aragonese, Catalans, Valencians, Mozarabes (Arab Christians in Southern Spain), and Galicians all saw themselves as distinct peoples with different languages and histories. They united politically because it was advantageous and could disunite just as easily for political reasons. (Portugal actually did this, seceding from Leon before Leon and Castille merged.) As a result, the only thing that held the Spanish Confederacy together would be a similar religious character (which was by far the most populous commonality between people of Spain). Therefore, Queen Isabella made the decision to remove Muslims and Jews.

3) Values of the Reconquest: The Reconquest was popularized across Christian Spain as a Holy War to drive out the infidels from lower Spain. As the culmination in this struggle, it was only necessary to remove the vanquished.

4) Anti-Semitism and Anti-Mohammedanism: It goes without saying that Christians of the Era (including their leadership) condemned tolerance of other religions, notably Judaism and Islam which they saw as violent and dangerous heresies. As a result, an act to attain religious purity was desirable.

*Forgive the use of the term Anti-Mohammedanism, but there is no politically correct term for hatred of Muslims. Islamophobia is too weak and Anti-Islamism is actually a modern Arab political sentiment supporting separation of mosque and state.