Persecution of Jews and Muslims by Manuel I of Portugal

On 5 December 1496, King Manuel I of Portugal signed the decree of expulsion of Jews and Muslims to take effect by the end of October of the next year.

[2] On 5 December 1496, King Manuel I of Portugal decreed that all Jews must convert to Catholicism or leave the country, in order to satisfy a request by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain during the negotiations of the contract of marriage between himself and their eldest daughter Isabella, Princess of Asturias, as an unstated condition to win her hand.

[4] Those Jews who refused to pay taxes in protest were deported from Portugal and abandoned to their fate in the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, off the western coast of Africa.

When the King allowed conversos to leave after the Lisbon massacre of 1506, many went to the Ottoman Empire, notably Salonica and Constantinople, and to the Wattasid Sultanate of Morocco.

In some of these places their presence can still be perceived in the use of the Ladino language by some Jewish communities in Greece and Turkey, the Portuguese-based dialects of the Antilles, or the multiple synagogues built by those who became known as the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, such as the Amsterdam Esnoga or the Willemstad Snoa.

Many of those New Christians were crypto-Jews who continued to secretly practice their religion; they eventually left the country in the centuries to come, and openly embraced their Jewish faith again in foreign lands.

Known as the "Last of the Marranos", some have survived until today (especially the Jewish community from Belmonte in Castelo Branco, plus some scattered families) by their practice of intermarriage and their very limited cultural contacts with the outside world.

Only recently, in the late 20th century, have they re-established contact with the international Jewish community and openly practice their religion in a public synagogue with a formal rabbi.

The law is a reaction to historical events that led to their expulsion from Portugal, but also due to increased concerns over Jewish communities throughout Europe.