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  • However, those that profited from the Encomienda System rebelled and this new issue of the namesake laws was repealed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

1600 - Law (All Facts)

• A law was passed in the Spanish colonies in Central and South America which forbade Whites to enter indigenous villages without permission

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

1626 - Union of Arms (All Facts)

• Royal decree issued by Gaspar de Guzman during the reign of King Philip IV ordering Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, and Portugal to bear their share of the military and financial burden on Spain’s Castile during the Eighty Years War

• Royal decree which met outright defiance from Catalonia and limited cooperation from Aragon, Valencia, and Portugal; thus it was barely enforced

  • It pressed Catalonia constantly to provide more men and money for the Franco-Spanish War

  • It eventually contributed to the Catalan Revolt against King Philip IV, Gaspar de Guzman, and Madrid as hatred of Madrid steadily mounted