Expulsion of the Moriscos

[1] Between 1609 and 1614, the Crown systematically expelled Moriscos through a number of decrees affecting Spain's various kingdoms, with varying levels of success.

[2] Although initial estimates of the number expelled such as those of Henri Lapeyre range between 275,000 and 300,000[3] 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 Dadson (2007).

Dadson estimates that, out of a total Morisco population of 500,000, a figure accepted by many, around 40% avoided expulsion altogether and tens of thousands of those expelled managed to return.

[4][5] The places where the expulsion was particularly successful were the eastern Kingdom of Valencia,[6] where Muslims represented the bulk of the peasantry and ethnic tension 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, worsened by the bubonic plague that hit Valencia only a few years later.

[7] Of those permanently expelled, the majority eventually settled in the Barbary Coast (Maghreb), with around 30,000 to 75,000 people ultimately returning to Spain.

[9] 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.

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 aristocracy.

This may have happened to a degree to Granada's Moriscos, but not in Valencia or Aragon, where Islam was still widely practised and ethnic tensions were much higher than in the rest of Spain.

[17] Some critiques of Spain from Protestant countries included insults of the Spanish as corrupted by the Muslims and crypto-Muslims amongst them,[citation needed] which some of the nobility may have taken personally.

[16] In the Kingdom of Valencia, which held the bulk of the Morisco population in the Crown of Aragón, the situation was radically different to Castile.

Some clerics such as Fray Luis de Aliaga, a royal councilor, supported giving time to the Moriscos to assimilate and become full Christians.

Bleda made several early proposals to King Philip III to banish or otherwise end the Morisco problem; he even recommended genocide.

In 1596 the Duke of Lerma, King Philip III's chief financial officer, accused the Moriscos of collaboration with the Muslim Barbary pirates, a charge that had dogged them for years.

[24]The Duke of Lerma eventually convinced King Philip III with the help of the Archbishop of Valencia, Juan de Ribera, who considered the Moriscos as universally heretics and traitors.

Ribera also encouraged the king to enslave the Moriscos for work in galleys, mines, and abroad as he could do so "without any scruples of conscience," but this proposal was rejected.

Archbishop Ribera strongly opposed this part of the measure; he lobbied that at the very least the children should be separated from their parents, enslaved, and Christianized "for the good of their souls.

It is very difficult to gauge the success of the expulsion in purging Spain of its Morisco population, a topic which has been recently subject to academic reassessment.

[18] Equally, traditional Spanish historiography, and early studies which drew heavily from it, paint a picture of a well-run affair that succeeded in channeling the vast majority of Moriscos (around 270,000) out of the country in a short period of time.

[26] However, a number of recent investigative studies have challenged the traditional discourse on the supposed success of the expulsion in purging Spain of its Morisco population.

A number of modern studies have concluded that expulsion met widely differing levels of success, particularly within the two major Spanish crowns of Castile and Aragon.

Dadson provides numerous examples, of similar incidents throughout Spain whereby Moriscos were protected and supported by non-Moriscos and returned en masse from North Africa, Portugal or France to their towns of origin.

[5] A similar study on the expulsion in Andalusia concluded it was an inefficient operation which was significantly reduced in its severity by resistance to the measure from local authorities and populations.

It further highlights the constant flow of returnees from North Africa, creating a dilemma for the local inquisition who did not know how to deal with those who had been given no choice but to convert to Islam during their stay in Muslim lands as a result of the Royal Decree.

More surprisingly, by the 17th and 18th centuries much of this group accumulated great wealth by controlling the silk trade and also holding about a hundred public offices.

[9] A number of recent genetic studies demonstrated that the African influence on the Iberian Peninsula is, by far, more intense than in other European surrounding territories[34] and populations.

[35][36][37] Approximately 5% of Spaniards have E-M81 Y-haplogroup, which is the characteristic haplogroup of North Africans or Berbers which is generally attributed to Islamic rule and settlement of the Iberian peninsula.

[38] Common North African genetic markers which are relatively high frequencies in the Iberian peninsula as compared to most of the European continent are Y-chromosome E1b1b1b1 (E-M81)[39][40][41] and mtDNA Haplogroups L and U6.

[citation needed] A recent study of various Tunisian ethnic groups has found that all were indigenous North African, including those who self-identified as Andalusians.

With the removal by 33% of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Valencia, some counties in the north of the current Alicante province lost virtually their entire population.

Of the eastern kingdoms themselves, the Catalan nobles now rose to prominence, their incomes far less affected since, unlike their southern and western neighbours, they never had a significant Morisco population.