Key Facts
- Duration
- 1492 – 1833
- Status
- Territorial jurisdiction of the Crown of Castile
- Morisco Revolt
- 1568–1571, harshly repressed
- Moriscos expelled from Spain
- 1609
- Abolished by
- Javier de Burgos' provincial division of Spain
- Cortes de Castilla vote
- One of 17 cities with a vote
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
The Kingdom of Granada was established as a Castilian administrative unit immediately after the Granada War concluded on 2 January 1492, when the last Muslim emirate in Iberia surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. The territory was incorporated into the Crown of Castile, ending nearly eight centuries of Muslim political presence on the peninsula. A Muslim rebellion in 1499–1501 was suppressed, and survivors were forcibly converted to Christianity.
Phase II: Zenith
As a Castilian kingdom, Granada retained notable institutional weight: the city held a vote in the Cortes de Castilla, its cathedral anchored an archdiocese, and the Royal Chancery of Granada served as the supreme judicial court for half of the Crown of Castile. Despite declining politically and economically relative to Seville—which rose to dominance through Atlantic trade with the Americas—Granada remained a significant administrative and ecclesiastical center throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.
Phase III: Decline
Persistent tensions between Morisco converts and Old Christians culminated in the Morisco Revolt of 1568–1571, which was brutally crushed. The Morisco population was first dispersed across Castile, then expelled entirely from Spain in 1609, devastating the kingdom's agricultural economy. The kingdom continued as a nominal Castilian jurisdiction until 1833, when Javier de Burgos' territorial reorganization abolished it along with all other traditional Spanish kingdoms, replacing them with modern provinces.
Notable Imperial Reigns
Selected rulers mapping the empire’s trajectory