1492 was a year that changed everything.  In Castile, it was the end of the Reconquista, as Isabella and Ferdinand ended a decade long war with a triumphant ride through the streets of Granada.  It was also the year they signed the Alhambra Decree, which banished all Jews from Castile, and it was the beginning of the end of Moorish presence as well.  The connection between these two events and the Spanish Inquisition was a drive for religious purity that would forever change the history of Spain.  This is also the year that Christopher Columbus obtained royal support for his expedition, opening the door to Spain’s colonial empire in the New World.