Ferdinand And Isabella's Consolidation Of Power

Hernán de Pulgar, the Catholic monarch’s chronicler, wrote “Although they are monarchs, they are human beings”. Ferdinand and Isabella was very ambitious leaders who had many goals they wanted to achieve in their reign. Having recently gotten power by uniting their countries, they were still an unstable, and both external and internal threats were coming towards them. To strengthen their power, Isabella and Ferdinand expelled all Muslims and Jews from Spain, spreading Catholicism and getting the money that exiled people were forced to leave behind. Their Catholicism, ambition and the new idea of nationalism led them to create a completely unified Catholic Spain.

Ferdinand of Aragon was the second oldest son of the Aragonese royal family. He

Castile and Aragon were under their control as a result of the couple’s marriage, but Muslim-ruled Granada posted a threat to Ferdinand and Isabella’s new and powerful kingdom. Diego de Valera, a Spanish writer and historian, believed that they were “chosen by God to increase the Christian religion.” Isabella and Ferdinand were told and believed that they were the rightful leaders. They were cousins, and were both part of the House of Trastámara in Spain and their job was to restore a Visigothic empire and promote the Roman Catholic

In the 1400s, a lot of countries, specifically Spain, France, Italy and England, were all opposed to each other, considering each other rivals for power in Europe. For example, during a French invasion in 1494, Italians worked together to prevent the French from taking over. Also, as a result of the Hundred Years War, France and England were each strengthened by the conflict. In France, the feeling of danger and oppression united the people. In England, the war with France lead to the rise of the Tudor dynasty. Both France and Spain were able to stop hiring mercenaries due to a sense of patriotism and nationalism. Spain rose to the levels of other European countries, and the way that Catholic Spain was completely unified in expelling Muslims and Jews demonstrated the ideas of nationalism. The Reconquista and expulsion of Muslims also made Spain feel safer and completely under Catholic control. The Spanish Inquisition fought Muslims, Jews and Lutherans, among other communities, as enemies, which formed a sense of unity. Spain expelled people who didn’t practice Catholicism as part of the newly defined idea of nationalism that helped strengthen countries across