Essay On Jewish Rule

Life for Jews under Christian rule has not been easy over the centuries. Starting in the late 1400’s Sephardic Jews have been dealing with a great deal of oppression prior to their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Their expulsion incited a massive movement of Sephardic Jews who were forced to pick up their things and move out of Spain. As a result, most fled across Europe in hope of finding a suitable country to relocate too without facing persecution. Although many Jews fled East, the ones that journeyed West to neighboring region Portugal faced a much more immediate sentence. They were in fact forced to convert to Christianity or die. Jews during the 15th Century faced tons of persecution and were forced to convert in order to save their lives. Their expulsion from Spain and eventually Portugal marks the stepping stones to centuries of Persecution and death in Jewish history. A main reason why Jews were even tolerated in Spain is because they …show more content…
Although conversion was not ideal, it did save their lives. The newly converted Christians were called Marranos so it was clear who was who. Even though many Jews decided to convert, there was suspicion that many were still in fact practicing Judaism. Christian authorities still didn’t think that Marranos were trustworthy so the Spanish Inquisition was imposed. This inquisition which ultimately led to the expulsion forced the re-location of Jews to across Europe and Asia which left many Jews relocated to bordering countries which included more Muslim oriented countries Ottoman Empire at the time. It turned out that the Ottoman Empire was step up from the Spain and Portugal. The Jews were given much more freedoms which allowed for them to grow into Jobs and establish secure living conditions. Jew’s found a lot of success in trade across seas and were given the ability to reach a higher social and economic status due to the Ottoman Empires lenient