King Manuel I ordered Jews in Portugal to convert or leave, partly to secure a marriage alliance with the Spanish monarchy. In Lisbon and other cities, departures were obstructed and many people were forcibly baptised in 1497. New Christian families later fled persecution for the Ottoman Empire, Italy, Amsterdam and the Atlantic world.

The Portuguese Sephardic diaspora established important printing and intellectual communities abroad. Samuel Usque's Consolation for the Tribulations of Israel and later Amsterdam publications transformed persecution and wandering into a shared historical narrative.