How Accurate Is The Perception That Spain Underwent A Transformation From An Open And Tolerant Society In The Late Middle Ages To A Closed And Intolerant One In The Early Modern Period?
How accurate is the perception that Spain underwent a transformation from an open and tolerant society in the late middle ages to a closed and intolerant one in the early modern period?
Medieval Spain society was a society of uneasy coexistence, called convivencia,. This convivencia was increasingly threatened by the advancing Christian reconquest of lands that had been Muslim since the Moorish invasions of the eighth century. The reconquest did not result in the full expulsion of Muslims from Spain, but instead yielded a multi-religious society made up of Catholics, Jews and Muslims. Granada to the south, in particular remained under Moorish control until 1492, and large cities, especially Seville, Valladolid, and Barcelona, had large Jewish populations centered in juderias. The reconquest produced a relatively peaceful co-existence - although not without periodic conflicts - among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the peninsular kingdoms. Then, how accurate is the perception that Spain underwent a transformation from an open and tolerante society in the late middle ages to a closed and intolerant one in the early modern period? First, it is important to define more precisely the terme convivencia. Then, we will interested in the Jewish situation and anti-semitism which motivated the Spanish Inquisition. Finally, we will study the Muslim situation and the measures that could make appear Spain as a closed and intolerant society.
For long periods, close contact between communities had led to a mutual tolerance among the three faiths of the peninsula. The different communities, occupying separate territories and therefore able to maintain distinct cultures accepted the need to live together. St Ferdinand, king of Castile from 1230 to 1252, called himself "king of three religions", a singular claim in an increasingly intolerant age: it was the very period that saw the birth in Europe of medieval papal Inquisition (c.1232).
However, the...
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