Aragonese treated their conquests rather differently. In Valencia the Muslim population remained in overwhelming majority; eviction was not a realistic option. Muslims were allowed to continue to live, both in the towns and in the country, under Christian administration, and the economic advantages of their presence were exploited. Cohabitation in close proximity had already been the pattern before the reconquest, so less adjustment was necessary. Above all coexistence was possible because the eastern Spanish seaboard was a natural trading base, giving the races a common interest. Catalan Barcelona, perhaps the only Spanish town in the period to become a major commercial centre to rival the chief Italian towns, became in time also a focus for the whole Aragonese economy.
To varying degrees, and with varying success, both Aragon and Castile saw the coexistence of races. Besides the Muslims, both kingdoms depended heavily on small but important Jewish communities. These tended to be urban-based, and many Jews were involved in the professions, particularly medicine, money-lending (usury was forbidden to Christians), and administration (and especially tax-farming). These last activities often made them natural objects of resentment, although they were in fact fulfilling functions Christians were either forbidden or reluctant to perform. None the less Jews were an important stimulus to the community, and in a sense could play the role of intermediary between Christian and Muslim cultures. Relations between the three communities could be strained, and the years following the reconquest saw many revolts. But on the whole a better job was made of convivencia than elsewhere, and for a couple of centuries Spain's role as interface between the three cultures was prolonged. In this Alfonso X--'The Wise'--of Castile, idealistic and even impractical though he may have been, symbolized the challenge of the Reconquista when he styled himself 'King of the Three Religions'.
From roughly the end of the thirteenth to roughly the middle of the fifteenth century much of Europe saw a proliferation of
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