The Expulsion of the Moriscos (Spanish: Expulsión de los moriscos) was decreed by King Philip III of Spain on April 9, 1609. The Moriscos were descendants of Spain's Muslim population who had been forced to convert to Christianity. Since the Spanish were fighting wars in the Americas, feeling threatened by the Ottomans raiding along the Spanish coast and by two Morisco revolts in the century since Islam was outlawed in Spain, it seems that the expulsions were a reaction to an internal problem of the stretched Spanish Empire. Between 1609 and 1614, the Crown systematically expelled Moriscos through a number of decrees affecting Spain's various kingdoms, with varying levels of success. Between 1492 and 1610, about three million Muslims left or were expelled from Spain.
Although initial estimates of the number expelled such as those of Henri Lapeyre range between 275,000 and 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 Dadson (2007). Dadson estimates that, out of a 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.
The places where the expulsion was particularly successful were the eastern Kingdom of Valencia, 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. The Kingdom of Aragon was, after Valencia, the part of the peninsula with the largest rate of expelled Moriscos and suffered the consequences as disastrously as Valencia, according to Henri Lapeyre.
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. 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, Islamic and Morisco identity were considered to have been extinguished in Spain.
Background
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 but practically nonexistent 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 aristocracy. 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 the Moriscos, in contrast, were devout in their new Christian faith. In Granada, many Moriscos even became Christian martyrs, and were killed by Muslims for refusing to renounce Christianity. Much of the enmity between the Old and New Christians was based on ethnicity rather than religion.
Several revolts broke out, the most notable being the 1568–1573 revolt against an edict of Phillip II's banning Arabic, Arabic names, and requiring Moriscos to give up their children to be educated by priests. After the suppression of the revolt, Philip ordered the dispersal of the Moriscos of Granada to other areas. Philip expected that this would break down the Morisco community and facilitate their assimilation into the rest of the Christian population. 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.
At around the same time, Spain recognized the loss of more than half of its holdings in the Low Countries to the Protestant Dutch Republic. The ruling class already thought of Spain as the defender of Catholic Christendom, and this defeat helped lead to a radicalization of thinking and a desire to strike a blow to regain Spain's honor. Some critiques of Spain from Protestant countries included insults of the Spanish as corrupted by the Muslims and crypto-Muslims amongst them, which some of the nobility may have taken personally.
The situation further deteriorated in the early 17th century. A recession struck in 1604 as the amount of gold and treasure from Spain's American holdings fell. The reduction in the standard of living led to increased tension between the Moriscos and Old Christians for precious jobs.
Attitudes toward the Moriscos
The number of Moriscos in Spain at the time of expulsion is unknown and most estimates are based on the numbers of Moriscos who were expelled. Figures of between 300,000 and 400,000 are often cited. Modern studies estimate between 500,000 and one million Moriscos present in Spain at the beginning of the 17th century, out of a total population of 8.5 million.
A significant proportion resided in the former Crown of Aragon, where it is estimated they constituted a fifth of the population, and the Valencia area specifically, where they were a third of the total population. The rich and those who lived in the cities were mostly Christians, while the Moriscos occupied the outlying countryside and the poor suburbs of the cities.
Crown of Castile
In the Crown of Castile, which included the Guadalquivir valley in present Andalusia, the situation was considerably different. The proportion of Moriscos is considered to be lower. More significantly, the majority of them were former Mudejar (Muslims) Christians who were highly integrated in mainstream society, had abandoned many of their distinguishing cultural traits. Crucially, unlike in Valencia, they did not suffer from hostility from their old-Christian neighbours, many of whom actively protected them from attempts by the Crown to expel them, to the point that in Plasencia the Crown officials sent to deport the Moriscos were immediately jailed upon arrival. In Avila, the local Moriscos were integrated in the clergy and government positions to avoid expulsion.
An additional Morisco community co-existed with these Mudejar Moriscos: a large number of Granada Moriscos who had been deported or dispersed after the uprising and war of the Alpujarras, who were the target of more suspicion within the communities in which they settled. Local sympathies for Moriscos meant that Castile and Andalusia experienced only half-hearted efforts at identifying and expelling them. The expulsion was slower and a far less thorough process than in the Crown of Aragon and particularly Valencia. A significant portion of Moriscos – according to Dadson a majority – either avoided expulsion or returned in the years following expulsion.
Crown of Aragon
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. Valencian Moriscos were the overwhelming majority of the landless peasantry and lived segregated from Christian populations. Economic and social rivalry was a major driver of resentment towards them, particularly from the Middle classes of artisans. This had boiled over before in 1520, when in the Revolt of the Brotherhoods, the artisan guilds of Valencia revolted against both the landed aristocracy and the Muslim mudéjar peasantry. Although the rebellion was ultimately defeated in 1523, the rebels killed many, and forced the mass baptism and conversion of the remainder of the Muslim population. In 1525, these forced conversions were upheld by King Charles, thus creating the Moriscos of Valencia. The plight of the Valencian Moriscos was the worst during the expulsion due to the long-standing hostility of their Christian neighbors.
There was practically universal agreement in Spain that Islam was a threat that should be crushed. However, it was not clear how that should apply to the Moriscos, who were officially Christian. Some clerics such as Fray Luis de Aliaga, a royal councilor, supported giving time to the Moriscos to assimilate and become full Christians. This option was lightly supported by the Catholic Church in Rome, too. The most dedicated defenders of the Moriscos were the Valencian and Aragonese nobility, as their self-interest was involved. These nobles benefited the most from the poor and cheap workforce that the Moriscos provided.
Opposing this view were a variety of notables and classes of people. Clerics against Aliaga included Jaime Bleda, the most prominent member of the Inquisition in Valencia. Bleda made several early proposals to King Philip III to banish or otherwise end the Morisco problem; he even recommended genocide. At first, these entreaties were without success. 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. Still, while many in the population held to this, others considered that this threat had long since passed. The Council of Aragon, in opposing any punitive measures, wrote that even if they wished to betray Spain, the Moriscos were in no position to do so "for they possess no arms, nor supplies, nor fortified positions, nor a base for the Turkish fleet." Nothing came of it at the time, but the Duke of Lerma continued his antipathy toward the Moriscos.
Criticism of the expulsion
The humanist Pedro de Valencia wrote a treatise on the Moriscos in late 1605 or early 1606. His Tratado acerca de los Moriscos de España was composed at the request of Philip III's chaplain, Fray Diego de Mardones.
Valencia is a critic of the king's Morisco policy. He denigrates limpieza de sangre (purity of blood):
Let us not fear that the blood of Spaniards will be infected by being mixed with that of the Moors; many have had this from time immemorial and it does not harm them because idem est non esse et non apparere (to be is not the same as to appear), as the jurists say.
He considers the expulsions unjust and un-Christian, born out of greed and hatred:
If we consider again the question of justice, how can one justify before God or man, or what Christian could there be that could bear to see in the fields, and on the beaches such a large crowd of baptised men and women, who were calling out to God and to the world that they were Christians and wished to be so and that people were taking their children and their property from them out of greed and hatred, without listening to them or judging them in court, and they were sending them to become Moors.
He admits that the Quran is a false book and that Muslims engage in taqiyya (strategic lying). His preferred solution to the problema morisco is assimilation. The duty of Spanish Christians was to fast and pray:
[...] nor would it be a bad idea if the Moriscos were to see that we were saddened and were fasting for their salvation; that would be more edifying for them than for us to call them Moorish dogs.
Edict and expulsion
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. The archbishop added an idea to make the plan more persuasive to the king: the king could confiscate the assets and properties of the Moorish population, thereby providing a dramatic one-time boost to the royal coffers. 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.
On April 9, 1609, the edict was signed to expel the Moriscos. The government knew that exiling so many would be problematic. It was decided to start with Valencia, where the Morisco population was greatest. Preparations were taken in the strictest secrecy. Starting in September, tercio battalions arrived from Italy. They took up positions in the main ports of Valencia: Alfaques, Dénia, and Alicante. On September 22, the viceroy ordered the publication of the decree. The Valencian aristocracy met with the government to protest the expulsion, as losing their workers would ruin their agricultural incomes. The government offered some of the confiscated property and territory of the Moriscos to them in exchange, but this didn't come close to compensating for the loss. The Moriscos would be allowed to take anything they could carry, but their homes and land would pass into the hands of their masters. Burning or other destruction of their homes before the transfer was prohibited on death penalty.
Certain exceptions were granted: six families out of every 100 would be allowed to stay behind and maintain the infrastructure of towns that had been predominantly Morisco-inhabited. Very few took advantage of this, considering that it was thought likely that they would still be exiled later. Additionally, the exile was optional for children less than four years old. This was later expanded to 16 years of age. 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."
On September 30, the first of the exiles were taken to the ports, where, as a last insult, they were forced to pay their own fare for the trip. The Moriscos were transported to North Africa, where at times they were attacked as invaders by the people of the recipient countries. Other times, small revolts broke out on the ships, causing some of the exiles to be slain in battle with the crew. This caused fears in the Morisco population remaining in Valencia, and on October 20 there was a rebellion against the expulsion. The rebels numbered 6,000 and held the remote valley of Ayora and Muela de Cortes. Five days later, a new rebellion broke out on the southern coast, with 15,000 rebels holding the Valley of Lugar.