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 * Renaissance Spain: ** ** By, ** ** TheGusinator **

During the Renaissance, there was a cultural change of sorts. Spain was at the helm of one of the biggest changes of this time. They were probably infamous for dishing out the hatred; they caused one of the biggest inquisitions in history. Spain was very important in this time period for many specific reasons.

** Important Monarchs during the Renaissance ** Ferdinand and Isabelle (Ferdinand: 1452-1516 Isabelle: 1451-1504) were the most influential monarchs in Renaissance Spain. First off, they were “haters” of sorts to all people for a number of reasons. They were the main cause of one of the worst times in Spain’s long history. Their main focus was for Spain to be an all-catholic nation, which means that they were set on ridding Spain driving of all Protestants, Muslims, and all others that were not of catholic faith. This was such a bad problem that this caused an event called the Spanish Inquisition (see body paragraph 2). They also were the monarchs that gave Christopher Columbus; permission to sail to India in 1492. After Isabella’s death in 1504, Ferdinand created the Holy League, which was an alliance of countries where the main focus was to get rid of all Muslims in Europe.

** Spanish Inquisition ** The Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834) was one of the darkest times in the entire history of the Renaissance for a number of reasons. The main reason of this happening was because of Ferdinand and Isabelle’s hatred of the non-catholic people, and that they drove them out of Spain. Tomas de Torquemada was the first general of the Inquisition and he established most of the rules that stayed with the Inquisition for its near 400 year history. People who were accused of being Protestants, Muslims, or any religion other than Catholic were abducted and whisked away to a public trial where they were questioned about their certain faith. If they were caught lying, then they would be publicly killed, where everyone could see them. Because of all previous reasons, the Spanish Inquisition was the 2nd most deadly inquisition in history.

** Spanish Armada ** The Spanish Armada was a turning point in Spain’s long rule of Europe in the time lapse of the Renaissance. The Armada’s main task was to overthrow Elizabeth I, a supporter of Protestantism. The King of Spain at the time, Philip II was following in the footsteps of all the Spanish rulers before him and was against all people who were not “pro-Catholicism”. After lots of planning Philip sent ships to England to attack. Fighting went on for a while, and then England decided to fight back. Sir Francis Drake lead charges to attack Spain’s trade ships, hindering Spain’s once powerful economy. Of course, this lead to outbreaks of MORE fighting after about a month from the first battle the English won.

As you can see, the Renassance time period in Spain was one of the most "culturally discriminative" times in history. There was alot of hatred in that day over religion, origin, and the like. It makes you think of how better of a world we live in now.