EXVULSION as a solution of the Moorish problem
may perhaps be regarded as the natural sequel to
centuries of warfare, but no such excuse can be offered
for a similar policy adopted toward the Jews. The
best that can be said is that the two problems, what
to do with the Jew and what to do with the Moor,
were similar, and that it was natural to pursue
a similar policy in both cases. I repeat, the pole
star that guided the Catholic Sovereigns was the
unification of Spain; only through religious homo-
geneity, so they believed, would it be possible to
establish order under a strong central government.
Up to this time the Spanish attitude toward the
Jews had been uncertain and shifting. Centuries
before, when the reconquest was well under way,
the Jews had been treated with more or less con-
sideration, but about the middle of the thirteenth
century matters changed for the worse and perse-
cutions began in earnest. The Crusades seem to have
stirred up the populations of Europe to fits of angry
fanaticism, and the Church had adopted a stern
policy. Jews were obliged to live in a quarter of
the town by themselves, to wear a distinctive dress,
and they were debarred from almost all occupations
except money-lending. The necessary consequence
of this was resentment on one side and suspicion and

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