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It was. But here is the interesting part where Catholic Spain shoots itself in the foot. Much of Spain's merchant class were Muslims and Jews who managed import trade with North Africa and the Middle East, especially all those hard to find near and far eastern foods like pomegrants, dates, oranges, lemons, apricots, and spices like pepper, coriander, cumin, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, and perfumes from aromatic woods and bushes of deserts, frankubcense, myrrth, etc---all the nice things that transformed the feudal cusine and the households of Europe, into something more civilized, eatable and livable. What did this entire class of Jews and Muslims do? Those that didn't go back to north africa or the middle east, moved to Amsterdam where they simply by-passed the Spanish inquistion and continued trade with North Africa and the middle east as before. This (and many other things) in effect made the Dutch the premire trading empire of Europe, and effectively shifted the geo-political center of European power over the new world and Asia to a contest between the English, Dutch and French. Well there was the defeat of the Spanish armada... Other details. The Grand Inquisitor, Juan Torquemada was Queen Isabella's confessor.
And of course the other irony was that the Turks had just conquered Constantinople (149?), evidently making trade more expensive for Europe, so the Europeans went looking for an ocean route...
The most amazing part here from my interest (in Strauss) was that Barach Spinoza was from such a family. His father owned an import trade business in dried fruits: dates, raisins, apricots, etc. His father died early, but because Spinoza was Charim, ex-communicated, he was no allowed to own or work for the family business, so his brother was the official owner while the brothers managed the business.
I find food history almost interesting as geopolitical history, mainly because it gives me a picture of everyday life--or at least some part of it.
Here is something interesting:
``Black peppercorns were found lodged in the nostrils of Ramesses II, placed there as part of the mummification rituals shortly after his death in 1213 BCE. Little else is known about the use of pepper in ancient Egypt, nor how it reached the Nile from India.''
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pepper#History
Well pepper reached the Nile from India like anything else would, by ancient Arab or Bedouin trading routes. There were some recent archeology finds following the ancient Arab religions (can't remember where I read about them.
The sheer antiquity of some of this is just mind boggling. The significance of the south asia rim below the great stepp of Central Asia is always coming up in world history. It's enough to make me want to just follow the old roads in some rattle trap truck, Alexander of the Isuzu---except I am too anglo to pull it off without getting my head blown off.
Lunch hour's up back to work.
CG