It was in this socially and economically difficult situation that the musical cultures of the Moors, Jews and Gitanos started to form the basics of flamenco music: a Moorish singing style expressing their hard life in Andalusia, the different compƔs ( rhythm styles), rhythmic hand clapping and basic dance movements, see Andalusian cadence. What followed was a mass exodus of Moors, Jews and Gitanos from Granada city and the villages to the mountain regions (and their hills) and the rural country. During the uprising that followed, people who refused the choices of baptism or deportation to Africa, were systematically eliminated. In 1499, about 50,000 Moors were coerced into taking part in a mass baptism. Therefore the inquisition used religious arguments to convince Ferdinand and Isabella to break the treaty and force the Moors and Jews to become Christians or leave Spain for good. For a few years there was a tense calm in and around Granada, however the inquisition did not like the religious tolerance towards Muslims and Jews. The Treaty of Granada was created to have a formal base for upholding religious tolerance, and this paved the way for the Moors to surrender peacefully. Granada, the last Muslim stronghold, fell in 1492 when the armies of the catholic king Ferdinand II of Aragon and queen Isabella of Castile reconquered this city after about 800 years of mainly Moorish rule. Flamenco music has also slipped in and out of fashion several times during its existence.
Flamenco was for a long time not really considered an art form worth writing about according to Spaniards.Their folk songs were passed on to new generations by repeated performances in their social community. The Gitanos mainly had an oral culture.The Moors, the Gitanos and the Jews were all persecuted and expelled by the Spanish Inquisition at various points in time as part of the Reconquista. The turbulent times of the people involved in flamenco culture.There are several reasons for this lack of historical evidence: Many of the details of the development of flamenco are lost in Spanish history. More recently other instruments like the cajon ( a wooden box used as a percussion instrument) and castanets ( castaƱuelas) have been introduced. The toque and baile are also often found without the cante, although the song remains at the heart of the flamenco tradition. Later the songs were accompanied by flamenco guitar (toque), rhythmic hand clapping ( palmas), rhythmic feet stamping and dance ( baile). Originally, flamenco consisted of unaccompanied singing ( cante). "Nuevo Flamenco", or New Flamenco, is a recent variant of Flamenco which has been influenced by modern musical genres, like rumba, salsa, pop, rock and jazz. It is supposed that during the Flemish kingdom of Karel V (Carlos I in Spain) some kind of popular confusion between flemish and gypsy culture led the people to use that word for the gypsy music. The word Flamenco in Spanish originally meant Flemish. Flamenco culture originated in Andalusia (Spain), but has since become one of the icons of Spanish music and even Spanish culture in general. Flamenco is a song, music and dance style which is strongly influenced by the Gitanos, but which has its deeper roots in Moorish musical traditions.