29.3 Europe: a.d. 1401 to 1500  (Page 8/16)

NOTE: Insert Map 46. Activities of the Medici and Fuggers in Western and Central

Europe c.1500

Western europe

Beginning in mid-century, western Europe started another population boom, this time to last for two centuries. It has been said that the founding fathers of the modern state were three western European leaders of this century - Henry VII of England, Louis XI of France and Ferdinand II of Spain.

Spain

The marriage of Juan I, of Castile and Eleanor of Aragon allowed these two provinces to become united, although at first they kept the monarchies separate. Ferdinand I of Castile became King of Aragon in 1410 but the union did not really become complete and final until the marriage of Ferdinand II and Isabella, in 1474. In the meantime, by 1450 there were 10,000,000 people in Spain, a mixture of Celts, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Visigoths, Vandals, Arabs, Berbers and Jews. A state bank had opened in 1401 and marine insurance had been established in 1435. The Church was an inseparable ally of the state and took small account of the pope in Italy. The king was head of the church and the people were devout. Moslems and Jews still made up 10% of the people. The Spanish Inquisition became cruel and money-mad under the Dominican leader, Torquemada and Spain was made into a unified State-church. For a short period, there followed a remarkable display of energy. Granada finally surrendered to the Christians in 1491.

The Genoese, Cristoforo Colombo, a giant of a man at six feet, when most virile men of that age were about five feet four, thought he could reach the spice islands of the east by sea by sailing westward, but the task of convincing Queen Isabella was not easy. Several factors were concerned in her final decision. Juan Perez, the Queen's confessor, pleaded for the trip; Granada had fallen, ending 700 years of warfare with the Moors; another Genoese, John Cabot, had already convinced Henry VII of England that the trip would be made sooner or later. (Ref. 39 ) Finally Luis de Santingel loaned Isabella the money for the glory of God and the Queen desperately needed to replenish her treasury, already depleted by those last campaigns against the Moors. The chance of a share of the spice trade from the Indies (since the Ottomans now had Constantinople and Athens, cutting off the old trade route) was the final argument. (Ref. 211 ) (Columbus' trips will be further detailed under Section VIII, AMERICA, this chapter). In 1492 in addition to Columbus' commission, the Spanish crowns issued the Edict of the Exile of the Jews, which led to massive emigrations and eventually slaughter. This wave of terror shook Spain to its foundations as perhaps 200,000 Jews were expelled. These people had been the real middle class of Castile - tax gatherers and state administrators, as well as high tax payers. The chief rabbi of Burgos was also the bishop there in 1415. In Seville the Bible had been read in Arabic for many generations. But strange tales about Jews drifted down from the rest of Europe and influenced the Spanish monarchs. The irony of the expulsion was that King Ferdinand, like most Spanish noblemen, had Jewish blood through his mother, Juana Enriquez