Emperor Charles V and his Vast Realms 565 kingdom of Granada, in the southern part of the peninsula. During this period Castile, which was the largest of the Spanish kingdoms and embraced all the central part of the peninsula, was -too much occupied by internal feuds and struggles over the crown to wage successful war against the Moorish kingdom to the south. The first Spanish monarch whose name need be mentioned Marriage of here was Queen Isabella of Castile, who, in 1469, concluded castiie and an all-important marriage with Ferdinand, the heir of the crown ^rago^n ""^ °^ of Aragon. It is with this union of Castile and Aragon that the great importance of Spain in European history begins. For the next hundred years Spain was to enjoy more military power than any other European state. Ferdinand and Isabella undertook to complete the conquest Granada, the ^ , . , , . c 1 • ^1 -^ r last Moorish of the penmsula, and in 1492, after a long siege, the city ot stronghold, Granada fell into their hands, and therewith the last vestige of ^^^^^ Moorish domination disappeared.^ In the same year that the conquest of the peninsula was com- Spain's in- pleted, the discoveries of Columbus, made under the auspices the N ew World en- of Queen Isabella, opened up sources of undreamed-of wealth ^i^g hlJ^'t^ beyond the seas. The transient greatness of Spain in the six- become a •, 1 1 • 1 1 • 1 European teenth century is largely to be attributed to the riches which power poured in from her American possessions. The shameless and cruel looting of the Mexican and Peruvian cities by Cortes and Pizarro (see above, p. 531), and the products of the silver mines of the New World, enabled Spain to assume, for a time, a posi- tion in Europe which her internal strength and normal resources would never have permitted. Unfortunately, the most industrious, skillful, and thrifty Persecution ^^.,•1-11*- i,iT of the Jews among the inhabitants of Spain, that is, the Moors and the Jews, and Moors who well-nigh supported the whole kingdom with the products 1 No one can gaze upon the great castle and palace of the Alhambra, which was built for the Moorish kings, without realizing what a high degree of culture the Moors had attained. Its beautiful and impressive arcades, its magnificent courts, and the delicate tracery of its arches represent the highest achievement of Arabic architecture (Fig. 146).
