1. Iberian peninsula and eastern Europe
Spanish Jews were forced to choose between conversion and persecution in 1492 (Refugees of conscience; Sephardim). Half of them fled to Portugal (where they were forcibly baptized in 1497), North Africa, northern Italy, and the Ottoman Empire (the Jewish communities in Istanbul, Thessaloniki/Salonika, and Izmir/Smyrna received substantial reinforcement; Jewish society). In the German Empire, most city a…