"Columbus set off to find…a new route to the East Indies (the Old World’s name for much of south and southeast Asia)."
An inconvenient truth....too often overlooked or simply erased from current history lessons:
Coincidental to Queen Isabella ridding Spain of Islam, Columbus was tasked to find a new trade route FREE of Muhammedan piracy/enslavement - which is rarely if ever mentioned anymore. 15th-16th century trade in the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans was dominated by Muslim merchants involving ports in Africa and the Middle East, India and Indonesia and China.
Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492. The Muslims weren’t expelled until King Phillip III in 1614.
In the case of both Jews and Muslims, some converted to Christianity in order to remain in Spain (”Conversos”) but the sincerity of those conversions was always open to question.
New Christians of Moorish origin were known as “moriscos.” The term morisco may also refer to Crypto-Muslims, those who secretly continued to practice Islam. New Christians of Jewish origin were referred to as marranos. The term “marrano” may also refer to Crypto-Jews, those who secretly continued to practice Judaism.