Spain: Notable Policies and Documents

Treaties are excluded from Notable Documents and can be found in Military History KNOWTs

1492 - Alhambra Decree / Edict of Expulsion (All Facts)

• Edict of Expulsion of Jews issued during the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain

• Edict which forced Jews to leave Spain or be baptized

• Some historians say that expelling the Jews (and Conversos) from Spain seriously depleted Spain’s merchant class, contributing to its later bankruptcy under their later successors

1512 - Laws of Burgos (All Facts)

• They were issued during the reign of King Ferdinand

• They were the first codified set of laws governing the behavior of Spaniards in the Americas, particularly with regard to the Indigenous people of the Americas

• They forbade the slavery of the indigenous people and endorsed their conversion to Catholicism

• They legalized protection against abuse of Indigenous Americans

• They authorized African slavery in the Americas

• 30 years after the namesake’s passing, new laws were passed in the same Spanish city which have further protections against enslavement to the native inhabitants of the Americas and were put forth by Bartolome de las Casas and had the backing of King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles

  • However, those that profited from the Encomienda System rebelled and this new issue of the namesake laws was repealed

1574 - Black Code (All Facts)

• Series of laws concerning the slavery of Africans in the Americas

1609 - Expulsion of the Moriscos (All Facts)

• Royal decree during the reign of King Philip III ordering the namesake population within Spain to be banished from the country