Expulsion of the Moriscos

The Expulsion of the Moriscos (Spanish: Expulsión de los moriscos, Catalan: Expulsió dels moriscos) was decreed by King Philip III of Spain on April 9, 1609. The Moriscos were descendants of Spain's Muslim population that converted to Christianity by coercion or by Royal Decree in the early 16th century. Fighting wars in the Americas, and feeling threatened by the Turks raiding along the Spanish coast, it seems the expulsions were a reaction to a perceived internal problem of the stretched Spanish Empire. Between 1609 through 1614, the Crown systematically expelled Moriscos through a number of decrees affecting Spain's various kingdoms, meeting varying levels of success.

Although initial estimates of the number expelled such as those of Henri Lapeyre reach 300,000 Moriscos (or 4% of the total Spanish population), the extent and actual success of the expulsion order in purging Spain of its Moriscos has been increasingly challenged by modern historians, starting with the seminal studies carried out by François Martinez (1999) and Trevor J. Dadson (2007). The only place where the expulsion was truly successful was the eastern region of Valencia, where Muslims represented the bulk of the peasantry and ethnic tensions with the Christian, Catalan-speaking middle class was high. As a result, this region implemented the expulsion most severely and successfully, leading to the economic collapse and depopulation of much of its territory and aggravated by the bubonic plague which hit Valencia only a few years later.

Of those permanently expelled, the majority finally settled in the Maghreb or the Barbary coast. Those who avoided expulsion or who managed to return to Spain merged into the dominant culture. The last mass prosecution against Moriscos for crypto-Islamic practices took place in Granada in 1727, with most of those convicted receiving relatively light sentences. By the end of the 18th century, indigenous Islam and Morisco identity were considered to have been extinguished in Spain.

Suspicions and tensions between Moriscos, who were called New Christians, and the other Christians, who were called Old Christians, were high in some parts of Spain and practically inexistent in others. While some Moriscos did hold influence and power, and even had positions in the clergy, others, particularly in Valencia and Aragon, were a source of cheap labour for the local nobility. Where sectarian conflict existed, old Christian communities suspected the Moriscos of not being sincere in their Christianity. The Moors who remained Muslims were known as Mudéjar. Many of these Moriscos, on the other hand, were devout in their new Christian faith, and in Granada, many Moriscos even became Christian martyrs, as they were killed by Muslims for refusing to renounce Christianity. As such the conflict between Old Christians and New Christians was an ethnically inspired one.

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