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Chronology

Some key dates

3rd and 2nd century BC: The Iberian Peninsula is conquered by the Romans
End of 2nd century: Tertullian attests to the vigour of Christianity in Spain
411: the territory is divided among the barbaric tribes
554: Toledo becomes capital of the Visigothic Kingdom
586: Recared, a Visigoth king, converts to Catholicism
711: conquest of the Berbers and end of Visigothic Kingdom
Official beginning of the Reconquista, which only really took off in the 11th century
713: beginning of the Umayyad Caliphate of the West
756: Emirate of Cordoba
929: Caliphate of Cordoba, replaced by Taifas after its fall
1474: Isabel, Queen of Castile
1478: Papal bull gives kings the power to appoint Inquisitors
1479: Ferdinand, King of Aragon
1483: creation of the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition, Tomas de Torquemad is appointed first Inquisitor-General
2 January 1492: conquest of Granada and end of the Reconquest
31 March 1492: the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews
12 October 1492: Christopher Columbus reaches the island of San Salvador
1525-1526: forced conversion or expulsion of Muslims, under Charles Quint (Charles the Fifth)
1869: first Constitution proclaiming religious freedom; Catholicism remains the religion of the State. Short-lived prosperity
1924: Primo de Rivera grants Spanish nationality to the Jews of Thessalonica and Alexandria, descendants of Jews expelled at the end of the 15th century
1931: the 2nd Republic is proclaimed. The Constitution establishes the separation between Church and State
1936-39: Spanish civil war
1945: fundamental laws of Franco’s regime, underlining the will to catholicise the State and society
1967: law on religious freedom, limited concessions granted to non-Catholic religions
1975: death of General Franco
1976-1979: agreements made with the Vatican that revise the Concordat of 1953
1978: a new Constitution is adopted, it establishes a new democratic State, guarantees religious freedoms and makes provisions for a system of cooperation with the “Catholic Church and other religions”
5 July 1980: law on religious freedom, normative development of the Constitution, which sets forth the conditions necessary to sign a cooperative agreement with the State
1982: Creation of the Federation of Israelite Communities of Spain (since 2004, Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain)
1986: Creation of the Federation of Evangelical Religious Entities of Spain
1992: Spain signs cooperation agreements with the three main minority religions (Judaism, Protestantism and Islam)
Creation of the Spanish Islamic Commission
2000: Creation of the General Direction of Religious Affairs of the Catalan Government
2004: Founding of the publicly-funded “Pluralismo y Convivencia” foundation by the Spanish Ministry of Justice
2009: Catalan law of 22 July 2009 on places of worship
2011: Creation of the Observatory of Religious Pluralism in Spain
2015: Royal decree of 3 July 2015 for the regulation of the provision of the status of “deeply-rooted religious communities”,
Royal decree of 2 October 2015 for the granting of the Spanish citizenship via naturalization to Sephardi Jews originally from Spain

D 7 January 2016    AClaude Proeschel AJulia Martínez-Ariño

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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