1492 in Spain
Granada falls, Jews are expelled, and Columbus sails — all in one year.
- When
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Post-Classical, Holocene
The last Muslim state in Iberia surrenders in January 1492, completing a process of Christian conquest running back centuries. In March the Alhambra Decree orders Jews to convert or leave, expelling perhaps 200,000 people and ending a community of over a thousand years; the Sephardic diaspora spreads across the Ottoman world and North Africa. In August Columbus sails west with Castilian backing. The three are connected: the same crown, the same year, the same conviction.