Towards the end of the 15th
century, the ruling Nasrid family ended up fighting among themselves. The now
united Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon, having conquered the rest of Spain, besieged the city and persuaded the last Moorish ruler,
Boabdil, to surrender in 1492. For the first few years of Christian rule,
Muslim citizens were permitted to live according to their religion and culture.
But, by 1499, Cardinal Cisneros began to force all Muslims to convert to
Christianity. They were later banned from speaking their language, wearing
their traditional clothes and practicing their customs, and they were charged
excessively high taxes.
During this period the Christians also destroyed many mosques or turned them
into monasteries, churches or public buildings. By confiscating Muslim property
and taking a percentage of the riches entering Spain from the New
World during the 16th and 17th
centuries, the Catholic Church and the Spanish Crown became enormously rich.
This era was when Granada's great cathedral, churches, monasteries and convents were
built. From the late 17th century until
the present day the city has kept a low profile.
At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, supporters of General
Franco's military uprising murdered thousands of Republican sympathizers,
including the outstanding local poet and playwright, Federico García
Lorca. Granada remained a prosperous administrative capital of a fairly
backward agricultural province until relatively recently.