Hooverville: 500-word Flash Fiction

The One True Spain (historic)🏆

Spain, 1492

Jorge Guzmán de la Nevada looked out of one of the windows of the castle's tower and sighed. Behind him, his secretary stopped writing mid-word, quietly placing his quill back into the ink jar.

"Is there a problem, Señor?"

Guzmán de la Nevada shook his head. "Yesterday, I looked out of this window upon a Spain full of impure elements, sick and corrupted. An abomination to God and their majesties. Today," he turned to address his secretary directly, "I look out upon a Spain purified and healthy. One Spain, one people, all united in the One True Religion. Today is the greatest day in the history of Spain and I thank God and the Virgin that I am here to see it."

The secretary nodded vigorously. "Yes, Señor. Truly a great day for Spain."

The heavy door burst open and in strode Count Artiago, a difficult man on the best of days.

"So they've gone and done it, have they?" thundered the count, not bothering to accept the chair that the secretary quickly pull out for him. "I knew Ferdinand was ambitious, but I didn't think Isabella so foolish as to sign this idiocy into law."

"Their majesties have issued a wonderf --"

"Their majesties have slit Spain's throat!"

Guzmán de la Nevada stiffened. "Spain has purified herself. She will become invincible now that all Spaniards are of the same blood and the same belief."

The count waved his hand as if waving away an irritating fly. "Purity has nothing to do with Jews! One week to get out of Spain? Most of our flourishing industries and factories are in Jewish hands!"

Guzmán de la Nevada smiled slyly. "And will soon be in ours. We've be very gracious. They may convert to the One True Religion, or they can leave everything behind. An ingenious solution."

"Do you know how to make cloth? With them goes knowledge, man! And what about loans? Catholic merchants will go under!"

It was now Guzmán de la Nevada's turn to wave his hand in irritation. "Their majesties point is this: unification. Spain is a piecemeal land. If we are to become a true nation, like France, then we must know exactly who we are! And who are we?"

He slammed his fist down upon the windowsill.

"Catholics! We're followers of the True Faith! That's what will unite us. Every last Spaniard will take Communion or perish! Out with the Muslims! Out with the Jews! Out with all of the foreigners and their Satanic beliefs! The One True Church will make Spain great!"

"Tell me that again when you can't afford bread, Guzmán, and are choking on that Communion wafter right along with our short-sighted majesties," whispered the count, and left the room ranting bitterly to himself.

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A/N The situation depicted above is, unfortunately, true. In January of 1492, Catholic forces succeeded in driving out the last toehold Muslims had in Europe with the fall of the Emirate in Granada. In the summer of that year, Jews in Spain were given one week to convert, or leave everything behind and flee the country.

The point of the expulsion was the idea of political unification. Spain had too many parts, and was too fragmented (too much diversity) to be ruled centrally. The element that "Their Most Catholic Majesties" Ferdinand and Isabella chose to base the nationhood of Spain on was the Catholic religion, which already claimed to be the only valid one. 

Jews who chose to convert were treated abominably under this unification-hysteria which gripped all levels of society, eventually causing what we know today as "The Spanish Inquisition" to be created.

The count in the story is right. Spain's economy would have collapsed within a few years without the Jewish merchants and money lenders. The only thing that saved them from total economic suicide through this badly-thought-through solution, was Columbus' discovery of America and its incredible gold reserves.

This was the winning entry for "A World Without Diversity" prompt in Aimed to Engage II