The fall of Granada and its annexation to Castile following years of war represented the culmination of the Inquisition that had been raging in Spain, and throughout Catholic Europe, for hundreds of years. Both Judaism and Islam were regarded by Christians as diseases plaguing Europe. From Amsterdam to Venice, laws prohibited Jewish and Muslim religious practices, stipulated that these communities could live only in specific neighborhoods, and sanctioned periodic outbreaks of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim violence.
