postReconquista

Post-Reconquista refers to the period after the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, marked by the fall of Granada to the Catholic Monarchs in 1492. It coincided with the consolidation of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon into more centralized monarchies and the expansion of royal authority across Castile, Aragon, and the newly unified realm. The era saw efforts to enforce religious uniformity, including the 1492 expulsion or forced conversion of Jewish communities (the Alhambra Decree) and increasingly coercive treatment of Muslim populations, culminating in the later expulsion or conversion of Moriscos in the 17th century.

Administratively, post-Reconquista featured the strengthening of royal bureaucracies, the establishment of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, and reforms intended to integrate newly acquired lands. The Casa de Contratación (established in 1503) regulated trade with the Indies and supported Spain’s emerging mercantile empire. The period also saw the rise of a centralized legal order and the spread of the Spanish language and Catholicism as imperial tools, while humanist thought entered the curriculum at universities such as Salamanca.

Overseas expansion defined the policy of the period. Columbus's voyage in 1492 opened the Americas to extensive Spanish colonization, while the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided non-Christian territories between Castile and Portugal. Spanish and Portuguese rule created new administrative structures—viceroyalties in the Americas, the early modern empire—and prompted missionary work, economic exploitation, and demographic change. The era thus laid the groundwork for the early modern Iberian empires and their enduring linguistic, cultural, and religious influence.