Great Gypsy Round-up

The Great Gypsy Round-up (Spanish: Gran Redada de Gitanos), also known as the general imprisonment of the Gypsies (prisión general de gitanos), was a raid authorized and organized by the Spanish Monarchy that led to the arrest of most Roma in the region and the genocide of 120,000 Romani people.

[8] The appointed Governor of the Council of Castile, Gaspar Vázquez Tablada, Bishop of Oviedo, secured the endorsement of Ferdinand VI[8] It was later also supported by the opinion of the Jesuit Father Francisco Rávago, confessor to Ferdinand VI, whose reply about the morality of the roundup can be summarised in his commentary that:[8] The means proposed by the governor of the council to root out this bad race, which is hateful to God and pernicious to man, seem good to me.

The king will be making a great gift to God, Our Lord, if he manages to get rid of these people.While the original plan was to expel the Romani population to the Americas, after the failure of the neighboring Kingdom of Portugal in its project to expel its Romani population became known, the Spanish plan was changed to internal deportation and imprisonment.

[6][8] The plan entailed sending troops to the towns with Romani settlements, each carrying sealed set of instructions, which were only to be revealed to the commanders on a date just prior to the roundup in August.

The roundup in Seville, where the city gates were closed by the encircling army to prevent the target's escape, created alarm in the general public, who were ignorant of the goals.

The remaining 4,000 who did not benefit from community support would be released gradually from 1750 onwards over an eight year plight during which it is estimated around 500 perished due to various causes.

[12] Nicolás Jiménez González argues, "It should be highlighted that the 1749 Great Round-Up is the oldest-known attempted genocide against the Roma people carried out in the Spanish territories.