Welcome to this week’s History Thread! I’m going to be extra-lazy this week and declare it an Open Thread to discuss whatever the hell you want. Discuss things you learned since the last history thread (what was that, two years ago?), things you want to learn, books you’ve read recently, whatever’s interesting or annoying you at the given moment.

Today’s picture is a painting by Francisco Pradilla Ortiz depicting the fall of Granada in January 1492. Over seven centuries of warfare between the Umayyad Caliphate and its numerous emirates and the Christian Kingdom of Spain finally came to a conclusion as the Muslim states relinquished its last stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula. This incident paved the way for Spain’s rise to preeminence in Europe, encouraging exploration and expansion of the New World. It also led directly to the forced expulsions of Jews and Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula Spanish Inquisition, which most of us would hopefully agree is a bad thing.