[muawiyah]

Right, 60,000 Jews were sent packing, 80,000 were converted, and virtually no Moslems left outside of the post-Reconquista property owners and elite (and even if they'd wanted to convert, that particular class was unwelcome).

BTW, there were many fewer people around in those days than there are now.

Spain destroyed its industrial base in 1492. The discovery of gold in the Americas circa 1521 allowed their bankers in Belgium to pay their bills, but, alas, sometimes it's good to have your own industrial workforce and machinery around. By 1600 Spain had lost its most ambitious people to the Americas, the gold ran out, Portugual (a more enlightened place) was seizing back its independence, and Spain was spent.

The 1500s were a period of serious decline for Spain as a viable nation. All they had was money.

[Cronos]

Right, 60,000 Jews were sent packing, 80,000 were converted, and virtually no Moslems left outside of the post-Reconquista property owners and elite (and even if they'd wanted to convert, that particular class was unwelcome).

They were converted -- the Marranos and M... (can't remember the term for Moslem converts) and yes, many did go to live in Morrocco.

Spain destroyed its industrial base in 1492.

What "industrial base" are you talking about? There was no "industry"

The discovery of gold in the Americas circa 1521 allowed their bankers in Belgium to pay their bills, but, alas, sometimes it's good to have your own industrial workforce and machinery around.

Belgium didn't exist until 1830. The entire area was the Spanish Netherlands (Hapsburg territories).

By 1600 Spain had lost its most ambitious people to the Americas, the gold ran out, Portugual (a more enlightened place) was seizing back its independence, and Spain was spent.

Portugal was independent right from 25th July 1139, after the Battle of Ourique. This was way before Spain (i.e. the rest of Iberia). Portugal was independent of Castile, Leon and Aragon and the Castile-Aragon union of Spain throughout. It was in personal union with Spain under Philip I from 1580 until 1640, only 60 years.

The 1500s were hardly any kind of decline for Spain. The decline only started in the late 1600s with the rise of the northern Netherlands and England and then through to France's rise under the Sun King until the 1700s and the wars of Spanish succession which is when Spain started to decline (that's good reading).

Spain's nadir was during the Napoleonic wars and it was then that Bolivar's ideas were sown.

This wasn't due to the expulsion of the Jews, deplorable though that was, in the 1400s.