timeline 559
1451: Jews are required to display distinctive symbols and loos their autonomy
1478: Catalan troops of the Kingdom of Aragon conquer the giudicato of Arborea
1479: With the marriage of Isabel and Ferdinand, Spain and Sardinia becomes part of
Spain until 1708
1480–1518: New restrictions on the Jewish community prompted migration to southern
Italy and other parts of Europe
1481–1484: The first Sardinian parliament
1492: King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s marriage unites Aragon and Castile;
Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Americas shifts the commercial traffic
from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and opens the way to colonization of the
New World. Edict of Expulsion of the Jews from all the territories of the Spanish
kingdom.
1493: Ferdinand plans to “reform the church of Sardinia”
Sixteenth century: Sardinia’s feudalization and militarization weighs more heavily on
the economic development and the community becoming a military outpost in the
Mediterranean war
1506: Drastic reduction of Sardinia’s commercial traffic in the Mediterranean and con-
tinuing Spanish feudalism
1528: Epidemics and demographic reduction
1545–1563: Council of Trent in response to the Protestant Reformation
1559: Peace Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis put an end to the Franco-Hispanic conflict and
the Habsburgs of Spain ruled over Italy and Sardinia for the next 150 years
1560: The Jesuits founded the first university on the island in Sassari
1563: The archbishopric of Cagliari is transferred to Sassari, where the seat of the tribu-
nal of the Holy Inquisition in Sardinia
1563: The Tribunal of the Inquisition reaches Sardinia and about 70 Jewish families
leave the island
1565: Bosa becomes a royal town
1582: Cagliari experiences pirate raids and sackings by barbarians
1583: Viceroy begs for urgent provisions from the Spanish Crown to upgrade the island’s
defense system
1587: Census of the island’s population ordered by Spanish authorities
1598–1621: Philip III’s rule
Late 1500s–early 1600s: the Jesuits restructure former Jewish districts with convents
and “well-ordered” crossroads
1618–1648: The Thirty Years’ War, between 10,000 and 12,000 Sardinian soldiers die
1618: Cathedral of Sta. Maria in Cagliari is completed
1620s: Sassari reached 15,000 inhabitants
1635–1636: High rate of mortality leads to collapse of livestock breeding