Early Modern Spain

During the Early Modern period, the Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were unique in many ways. For centuries, they had struggled with significant Islamic and Jewish populations both inside and just beyond their borders. Long after the conquest of Granada and the expulsion of the Jews, the presence of newly converted and assimilated peoples informed Spanish culture. Columbus’s voyages to the Caribbean made Castile the head of an expanding American empire that transformed the kingdom politically, socially, and economically. With the succession of Charles I to the thrones of Castile and Aragon and his subsequent election as Holy Roman Emperor (Charles V), that empire grew to include much of northern and central Europe. Charles’s successors would add Portugal and parts of Asia to its possessions. As a result, Spain’s monarchs, institutions, policies, and social norms became critical in the formation of the early modern world.