ABSTRACT
The concept of expelling whole Jewish communities from kingdoms or other states itself evolved from a long period of co-existence between adherents of the two religions on the European continent. Religious tension between the Jews and Christians is of the essence of the origins of Christianity itself. A conflict seems to have arisen inevitably from the historical priority of Judaism and the fact that Christianity first broke away from it and then achieved vastly greater power and influence. The social implications of ideological and visual stereotyping were to haunt Jewish communities in Catholic Europe thoughout the late Middle Ages and on into the early modern period. The Spanish expulsion was a great shock, not only to the affected individuals, but also to Jewry as a whole. The development of a ‘New Christian’ population in Portugal, as much as in Spain, was to have a significant effect on the economic life of western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
