Economic Consequences of Jewish Persecution of Iberia in the Early Middle Ages and Pre-czar Imperial Russia

Both King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela of Spain and King Manuel I of Portugal expelled their Jewish populations from their respective countries in 1492 and 1497. These were actually the culmination of Jewish persecution that began with the slaughter of Jews in Spain in 1391. This Iberian Jewish persecution will be compared with the persecution of the Jews in the Russian Empire with the last two czars before the Bolshevik Revolution. The purpose of this research is to show the economic impacts of these two separate periods of persecution, which, even though they occurred in different geographic locations and different times, they had very similar economic impacts. First, a brief introduction including a biographical sketch of the reigning monarchs of Iberia and the last two czars will be given. This will be followed by a brief discussion of the treatment of the Jews in each geographic region previous to the persecution. Next, a detailed comparison will be drawn between the motivations that the reigning monarchs had for this drastic act against their citizens that were contributing members of their kingdoms. And finally, the economic consequences of these actions will be compared