Not only did the victory release funds that had been tied up by the war, but the subsequent seizures of Jewish (and Muslim) money and property swelled the state’s coffers further (Spain’s expulsion decree, echoed five centuries later by the Nazis, expressly forbade Jews from taking gold and silver with them). Funds for Columbus’s journey across the Atlantic thus came from both these sources: the war chest Spain had accumulated to battle Islam, and the confiscated assets of Jews and Muslims.
