The first exile from a European country is England in 1290. This is after the York Massacre of 1190 where an entire Jewish population is slaughtered by a mob after a bunch of antisemitic ideas like “Jews control the money” become widespread. Not only is all Jewish property stolen, all debts to Jews are cancelled.

Fast forward to 1492. Spain orders the expulsion of all Jews from Spanish territories. Five years later, Portugal does the same, making any practice of Judaism illegal. Jews escape to Northern Africa and the Ottoman Empire. Italy decides to follow suit through the 1500s expelling all Jews from Naples and Sicily, repeatedly. Lithuania does it.

The Holy Roman Empire starts doing it in 1519, and Jews are targeted by the Papacy. Further expulsions continue for the next hundred years. In the 15th and 16th centuries, even Germany began expelling all its Jews. If you’re ever wondered why your Jewish friends are a little sensitive about antisemitic tropes, IT’S BECAUSE THEY ARE THE CORE REASON FOR ALL THIS HORROR. “The Jews control the money!” “The Jews are secretly in control! “Jews will not replace us!” It’s like a mind virus that just will not stop.

The pattern repeats again. Jews escape. They resettle in parts of Italy. And then in 1670, Leopold I decides to kick them out again for the same damn reasons. This particular expulsion really sets up the events that led to the Holocaust, as it’s the start of random European violence targeting and slaughtering Jewish communities. They’re given a choice to abandon their properties or face execution. It happens again in Vienna in 1670. It happens in Prague and Bohemia in 1744.