Introduction: from medieval to early modern

Historians of late medieval and early modern Spain have long seen the reign of the Catholic Monarchs (Isabella, 1474-1504, and Ferdinand, 1479-1516) as a watershed between two historical periods: the Middle Ages and the onset of modernity. To be sure, 1492 - annus mirabilis of the Castilian and Aragonese kingdoms; symbol of centralizing reforms - witnessed momentous events in the history of the peninsula. Nonetheless, the centrality assigned to the capture of Granada, the expulsion of the lews, and the encounter between the Old World and the New have obscured far more enduring historical transformations.