Summary
Highlights
The video introduces the concept of new monarchies and their methods of consolidating power: reducing noble and clerical power, establishing bureaucracies, and finding new income. Spain before Ferdinand and Isabella was a divided Iberian Peninsula with diverse cultures and no national identity or centralized state.
The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469 brought together two large regions, though initially forming a loose confederation rather than a unified Spain. They began centralizing power by reviving the 'hermanes' (local police), restructuring the Royal Council to exclude nobility, and hiring middle-class bureaucrats, thereby taking control of executive, legislative, and judicial authority.
Ferdinand and Isabella made Catholicism the national religion, gaining the Pope's permission to appoint church officials and establish the Spanish Inquisition. They believed religious division led to divided loyalties. The large Jewish population, many of whom had fled other European countries, became a target. They were forced to convert or leave, leading to the persecution of 'conversos' (converts) suspected of not genuinely adhering to Catholicism.
The Spanish Inquisition, established in 1480 under Tomás de Torquemada, used torture to extract confessions from conversos. Ultimately, Ferdinand and Isabella expelled 150,000 to 200,000 Jews from Spain. This act, alongside taking control of church lands, provided significant wealth for the monarchy.
To maintain power, Ferdinand and Isabella established marital alliances with other European powers. The wealth acquired from expelling Jews and controlling the Church funded the Reconquista, ending Muslim rule in Spain in 1492, and financed Christopher Columbus's voyage, which would later bring immense riches from the New World.
Ferdinand and Isabella successfully meet the criteria of new monarchs: they reduced noble power, placed the Catholic Church under state control, created a bureaucracy, and found new sources of income, notably through colonization of the Americas. This solidified their rule and transformed Spain.