Expulsion and Diaspora: A Spatial History of the Spanish Inquisition [Michael]

"Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition"¹

The first two images in the gallery are historical maps of the Iberian Peninsula. These maps highlight rivers and mountains  that traverse the Iberian Peninsula. This map shows the geographic concerns of people moving throuhout the region. The lack of detail stands out in Hispania III and calls attention to the spaces between places. It makes the area seems empty and spread out. Nova descriptio Hispaniae on the other hand provides a much more condensed and cluttered view of the Peninsula. These maps sparked my interest in the region especially with the mobility caused by the Spanish Inquisition. The third image shows the major trade routes of Europe during the 15th century. From this map I was able to start researching possible existing routes that Jews could have utilized to escape the Inquisition.

The final image in the gallery is from the digital map titled Status of Iberian Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. This time aware map highlights the changing status of Jews in Iberia as the Inquisition progressed. The selected image incorporates specific data about Jews who fled Spain to neighboring Portugal. By clicking play on the time slider at the bottom of the page, the map will update each point based on the time period. While there were many different statuses, I focus on three: Free Movement across borders, Future Expulsion announced through an Edict, and Enforced Expulsion. These three indicate the confusion and hardships surrounding expulsion during the Inquisition. People were often given only a few months to leave their city and country.

Fleeing Expulsion

This topic map drive at pressing question in the era of refugees and immigration: Where do you go when you can no longer stay in the place you call home? The time enabled map shows how the status of Jews changed over the time period, but it raises questions about their mobility and escape. How did Jews travel to Greece and Northern Africa once exiled from the Southern Coast of Spain? What were the primary routes taken from city to city? These questions are imperative to understanding the spacial relations between the Alhambra Decree and Sephardic Diaspora. The map shows that the expulsion from Spain was not a switch from Jews Residing to Expulsion, but rather a gradual change over the course of 25 years. There are varying figures on the number of Jews forced into exile, but one thing is clear: by 1500 Jews were not allowed on the Iberian Peninsula and had either fled or converted.

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¹Special thanks to Monty Python's Flying Circus for this quote