During the first half of the 17th century, communities of merchants of Portuguese origin were the cause of acute anxieties and conspiracy theories that led to a series of targeted crackdowns conducted by the inquisitorial tribunals in Mexico, Peru, and New Granada (present-day Colombia). The merchants and their families were the descendants of Jews who had been compelled to convert to Christianity in the late 15th century, and they were suspected (rightly or wrongly) of continuing to secretly practice Judaism (or Judaize) even though they were baptized Christians. This fear of the spread of Crypto-Judaism by those known as New Christians or Conversos was supplemented by the anxiety that these merchant communities were secretly collaborating with enemies of the Habsburg monarchy to undermine the security of the Spanish Empire.